Lily Evans and the Elf-nymph Necklace
by Sohara von Salienta
Summary: Lily finds out she's a witch, goes to Hogwarts, the usual--but in her first year, she also finds something dear to Tom Riddle. They quickly become friends, but when war breaks out in the Alendoren Cove and Lily could be a useful ally...
1. In the beginning

Lily Evans sat in her comfortable chair by the fire, with her bright red hair spread around her shoulders and midnight blue nightgown. It wasn't all that late, just around ten-thirty on July 30th, a very rainy night. It was strangely cold for July; it had hit the forties, which hadn't happened in around two hundred years. Her father had lit the fire as soon as he had heard that it was going to sink down to 41 degrees and that Lily was going to stay up a bit and read. He'd made her promise, though, that she wouldn't fall asleep with the fire on and that she'd put it out before midnight.  
  
The book she was reading was in Hebrew; it was one that her mother had brought back from her trip to the mainland, and right now, Lily was engaged in trying to translate as best she could. She had just reached a particularly difficult phrase when she heard the thump of feet on the hardwood floor.  
  
"Lily, go to bed. I can hear the fire all the way into my room." Petunia, her older sister, had grumpily stomped into the living room doorway. "You can read that stupid book in the morning."  
  
"Stupid?" Lily felt her face growing hot. "Did you just call this stupid?"  
  
Petunia put on her annoyed face. "I did, and if you don't put that fire out right now--AAHHH! Mom! Help! OUCH!" She was grasping her stomach and sinking to the floor. Lily's eyes opened in amazement as her parents rushed into the room, awakened by Petunia's screaming. She had been fixedly staring at Petunia's stomach a moment before, to avoid having to look at her face. Her eyes had become hot, and just when the pressure behind them let off, Petunia had started to scream.  
  
Lily gaped. "Wow. Did I do that?"  
  
"Do what? Of course you did, you--you witch!" Petunia shrieked.  
  
"Witch? Is that supposed to be insulting?" She shrugged and turned back to her book. She couldn't concentrate on it, though. Her mind kept running over the strange things that had happened just now. Practically in a sort of trance, she was rudely startled out of it by a rap on the window.  
  
She started in her chair. The knock she heard was repeated again and again, almost as if it was Petunia's anxious boyfriend, Vernon Dursley. But Vernon didn't get out of bed at this time of night. Simply out of curiosity, she went to the window, pulling aside the curtains and undoing the latch.  
  
"I'm asleep. I'm dreaming. I know I'm asleep." she kept repeating to herself as she stared out of the window at a large, tawny owl carrying a letter in its beak. The owl fluttered inside, landing on the sofa and dropping the letter on Lily's book. It shook itself, then, without even resting for a while, it took off again into the dark and stormy night.  
  
Slowly, as if it were some kind of explosive, Lily moved towards the letter. With a quivering hand, she snat ched it up. The envelope was a sort of yellowing parchment with emerald green ink.  
  
To Miss Lily Evans  
  
Armchair in front of the Fire  
  
777 Laner Street  
  
  
  
She slit the envelope open. Inside were two sheets, but she only noticed the first words on the page.  
  
Dear Miss Evans,  
  
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  
  
Of the next two days Lily hardly remembered anything, besides the fact that she found out that this wasn't a hoax and that she would be taking a train to Hogwarts on September first. A small slip of paper inside the envelope that she hadn't noticed before gave directions on how to contact Professor M. McGonagall, who told Lily and her family how to get onto the platform and how to get her school supplies. Her father and mother were excited and pleasantly surprised, and after binding Petunia to secrecy, they were on the subway to the street in front of the Leaky Cauldron, the entrance to the place where Lily would find her supplies.  
  
Petunia was grouchy most of the way, though as soon as they entered the small pub, her face was frozen in fear and she was silent until they got to a brick wall in the back, along with a rather small and wrinkly wizard.  
  
"Let's see, now where are those bricks again? Oh, right, third left..." He tapped several bricks, and almost immediately, the wall, which had been secure before, modeled a gap which slowly grew larger and larger, until all of Lily's family could fit inside.  
  
Lily's mother and father stared with popped out eyes at the first bit of magic they had seen performed. Lily grinned, then smiled even wider as she saw Petunia, who was sitting down on a trash heap with a banana peel poking out from under her skirt and her vocal cords frozen in an eternal whimper.  
  
Tearing her amused gaze away from her sister, Lily looked back at the doorway. Through it she could see a crowd of many wizards and witches congregating about bright shops and window, some eating ice cream at a nearby cafe, and a group of boys oohing over a broom one of them had just bought. The street was cobblestoned, with sparks issuing from several random wands here and there; no trace of the rainy weather that reigned outside in the rest of London. Here, there was a bright and cheery sky, with several birds and--wait--gold balls with wings?--whizzing around among the clouds. Several people could be seen through a shop window trying on wands, others were being fitted for some type of clothing, and others were flipping through books at a place called Flourish and Blotts.  
  
"Wow." Lily whispered.  
  
"Well, welcome to Diagon Alley," the crinkly wizard grinned.  
  
Lily was the first to step into the alley. She glanced around, looking for what the letter said was a bank; a large white building. She found it easily, as it was the tallest structure on the street. Half dragging, half pulling Petunia, her family walked past several goblins on either side of the doorway and to the desk of another goblin.  
  
"We'd like to open an account and exchange some money, please." Her father spoke as if he had done this a million times before.  
  
The goblin asked for his name, then told him that only wizards and witches could open an account. "Is it for one of the young ladies here?"  
  
"Yes, sir, it is. Lily Evans."  
  
"Lily it is? Well, then, follow me." The goblin headed for an elevator behind the counter, beckoning to the family. They stepped inside, while the goblin set a large golden dial on the side of the elevator to 472. The door closed and, with breathtaking speed, the elevator hurtled downwards. After about five seconds, with a gentle bump, the elevator stopped.  
  
Petunia, rather green in the face, was the first to leave. The goblin followed her out to reveal a long corridor, all lined with iron doors, smaller golden dials, and padlocks. They didn't have to walk far before the goblin stopped them in fromt of a door without a padlock. He took out two small golden keys and turned to Lily's father.  
  
"And how much will the young lady be depositing?"  
  
"Er..." He looked around to Lily's mother. "About...I'd say, two hundred pounds. I think that should be enough."  
  
The goblin nodded. "Very well, then." He set the dial to 200, then opened the padlock and door with one of the keys. Lily gasped. Inside were mountains of gold, silver, and bronze coins, more than she could ever have imagined seeing. She drew out several handfuls and put them into her purse, her mouth still hanging open. "Dad, I...thanks, Dad." She hugged him. Can we go and get my things now? I can't wait to get a wand!"  
  
The goblin and her parents smiled. Upstairs, the goblin handed Lily her own golden key to her safe, then waved until they were out of sight. He finally turned around, muttering.  
  
"Good Lord, that Muggle child was green!"  
  
The next thing she knew, Lily found herself in the bookshop; Flourish and Blotts, to be exact. The salesclerk who was in while the owner was out to lunch immediately hurried over to her, a bit too overexcited to help.  
  
"Let's see, I need Transfiguration,--Hey!" The salesclerk had dumped about seven books on top of the list where she had placed it, on a small table with a "Here you are, miss. That'll be seventy Sickles, four Knuts."  
  
Lily raised one eyebrow. "How many first years have you had come in here today?"  
  
He grinned a bit sheepishly. "About fifteen." He pulled out a cloth bag from under the counter. "Bag, miss?"  
  
Lily nodded. "Yes, please." She left the store alone, having left her parents and Petunia at the ice cream parlor, where Petunia was scarfing down about a pint of mint dragon-eye ice cream to make up for the elevator ride.  
  
The closest thing there was on the street was the robe shop she had noticed earlier. It had pale blue drapes on the windows and black robes on moving statues in the show windows. Lily stepped inside.  
  
The owner, Madam Malkin, immediately flitted over and started taking her measurements. "Hogwarts this year, dear?" She went on without waiting for comfirmation. I remember the very day my mother took my measurements for my first Hogwarts robes...." She went on and on and on. Lily grew drowsy listening to the jabber and would have falen asleep, except that Madam Malkin used very sharp pins. About twenty-five minutes later, she left the shop gratefully with her new robes wrapped in pale blue tissue paper.  
  
With difficulty, she pulled out her list again. "Wand. Wand wand wand. Now where on earth--OW!" She was knocked onto the cobblestones as a boy about her age ran into her, trying to dodge a few gold sparks.  
  
"Watch where you're going!" she grumbled, quite miffed, as she retrieved her packages from where they went flying all over the street.  
  
"I--I'm sorry. Really. Here, let me help you." The boy dusted off a few of the books and helped rewrap her robes. "First year, huh?"  
  
Lily nodded. "That obvious, huh?"  
  
He shrugged. "To me it is, just because I was one last year."  
  
Lily smiled. "Hi--I'm sorry if I sounded rude. I'm Lily. Lily ________."  
  
The boy, with wildly messed up hair, smiled at her. "You didn't. I'm James Potter. Hope I'll see you around at Hogwarts!"  
  
Lily stared after James for a while, then came back to the real workd with a start. He had such beautiful blue eyes--just the ones she wished she had-- hers were green. She hated green. With a sigh, she nimbly stepped out of the way of an out-of-control broomstick and into the wand shop, which she'd just spotted. She couldn't remember a minute of her stay in the shop, except that Mr. Ollivander had large bulgy eyes and that he had an old owl in a cage on his counter that let out a dying croak when she entered the shop. When she arrived at a store for miscellaneous items, she spotted a friend of hers from school.  
  
"Amanda!"  
  
"Lily" Lily couldn't believe that Amanda was also a witch. This was amazing- -and now she actually had people she'd know at Hogwarts. they raced to each other and hugged, jumping up and down with excitement. "Eeek!" Amanda had always loved that work. "I can't believe this!"  
  
"Me either. By the way, what do I need here?"  
  
"Oh, that's easy. Over here, look. Parchment and ink. I got lots of green and blue ink, the sparkly kind, though Mom made me get some regular. Hey, you get some of the gold and silver, then we can swap when we want to! And here--"  
  
Lily left the store with a bulging bag of firecrackers, ink, parchment, and a few colored quills. They said goodbye and went back to their families. "See you at Hogwarts!" both of them shouted as Amanda's family left Diagon Alley. 


	2. A train rideoh, what fun!

Lily watched the doorway close behind Amanda, smiling. Amanda wasn't exactly her best friend, but it was neat to have her at Hogwarts, too. She pulled her list out again.  
  
"Potions stuff. All right then." She headed straight for the dim and dusky store on her right. Inside, she found her mother scooping out some black beetle eyes into a bag.  
  
"Mom? I thought you were with Petunia."  
  
Her mom smiled. "I was, but then I decided, that since I'm majoring in chemistry this year, I'd do some extra experiments. Look, they have potion recipes up here!" And she waved a whole stack of parchment in Lily's face. "I copied your list, so your Potions stuff is right here. I got you some extra stuff that I'm going to take back as soon as we get home." Lily shook her head. Her mom couldn't even cook decently, not to mention do experiments. Usually, the cookies turned out burnt and the experiments blew up,sending smoke up her nose and causing her to have a sneeze attack.  
  
"Mom, I'm gonna look at the other stores. See you in...how long?"  
  
"A half hour. And stay in Diagon Alley."  
  
"I will. Thanks." She practically dashed out of the murky shop with its awful smell, thankful for fresh air.  
  
She looked around for anyone else she might know, though the only familiar face was James', and his wasn't actually a face, it was more the back of his head. He and some others were clustered about the Quality Quidditch Supplies store, oohing over a broom that, Lily read on its handle, was the new 'Millenium'.  
  
James seemed to be the most interested. "Look at that thing! I bet you wouldn't even feel that you're on a broom at all."  
  
"I know." one of his friends added, with black hair and a sort of doglike expression. "I wish Dad'd trade in that old one I have--it's starting to splinter."  
  
A girl with short blond hair smirked. "Sirius, I've told you before that if you insist on chasing Serverus with that thing, he's going to hex you. And that's gonna do some damage to the broom."  
  
"All right, all right! I've heard this before!" he retorted, clearly knowing her statements by heart.  
  
James was still staring at the broom. "I've already asked Mom to sell my old one and give me this, but since she got me that model of the Milky Way, she thought I didn't need this. It's just what we need to beat Slytherin, though!"  
  
The blonde rolled her eyes. She took James' arm and pulled him away from the window. "You promised me you'd get me some ice cream, c'mon, that broom isn't that important, is it?" He gave in, and Lily stared after them, wondering. "Is that his girlfriend?" She wrinkled her nose. "Darn."  
  
A few weeks later, September first, to be exact, Lily and her family were walking towards King's Cross to drop her off in front of the magical barrier, the one separating the platform from the other Muggle ones. Her family couldn't get inside, so she had to say goodbye here.  
  
"Mom, I promise I'll come home for Christmas. Thanks again for my trunk."  
  
She hugged her father. "Dad, 'bye. Send me lots of owls, OK? Oh, wait, you'd have to wait for me to send Alisande. I'd forgotten." One of the things she'd gottin in Diagon Alley was a raven-black owl with firey black eyes; she had named her Alisande.  
  
Petunia had been forced to come along, as Lily wasn't going to be home till Christmas holidays.  
  
"'Tunia, stay out of my room. If you don't I'll hex you. Bye, now," she added in a sickly sweet tone.  
  
"And good riddence, I'd say." Petunia muttered, out of her parents' hearing, though not out of Lily's.  
  
"Right back to ya, Muggle." Lily had answered. "When I come back, I'll make sure to teach you a spell that'll make you look less like a horse." She nimbly evaded a slap and, without waiting for a hug from her parents, dashed towards the barrier between platforms nine and ten.  
  
"I'll send you millions of owls, Mom! Bye!" She had just seen James and his friends approaching and speeded up, managing to get through the barrier. She had heard a story of how, last year, the barrier had been locked and no one could get in and everyone missed the train. No one was quite sure who had done it, though.  
  
Lily was standing on platform nine and three-quarters before she knew it. The long, scarlet engine was letting off so much noise she had to cover her ears. Finally deciding to let them go, she half carried, half dragged her trunk onto the train. It was heavy, as her mother had insisted on buying a black trunk with gold fastenings. She got it through the door and into one of the few empty compartments. Gasping for breath, she sank down onto a plushy velvet seat. "Ouf. Mom, next time get me a paper bag. Ouch, my back." She remained sitting until she heard some noises outside and went to investigate.  
  
She knew some of these people. Sirius, James, and two others were setting off a couple of squeaky mice in the corridors, which went into quite a few compartments. Squeals and screams and the occasional curses came from behind every half-open door the mice went into.  
  
Sirius pointed down the part of hte corridor near Lily. "We haven't let them off in any of those yet."  
  
One of the other boys, with brownish-mousy hair and the look of a rat, shivered. "But what if there's a teacher in one of them?"  
  
James frowned. "Peter, you're entirely too spineless. C'mon. We'd better get rid of these before Snape sees us."  
  
They only had two mice left, and, carefully, they guided them to Lily's compartment and another. She drew back inside quickly, not allowing them to see her, though leaving the door partly open.  
  
She saw the small brown mouse enter with a squeak, as if someone had just pinched its tail. Swooping down on it, and making sure not to make a sound, she picked the mouse up. It was really quite a cuddly thing as it started to nip at her ear. She reclined in a seat, stroking the mouse.  
  
Outside, the boys had realized that the other compartment was empty. Disappointed, they waited for a shriek from the inhabitant of the other compartment. They didn't hear a sound. Puzzled, James stuck his head in the small gap in the doorway. His mouth dropped open. Lily was stroking the mouse. "Let's see, now what should I call you? Oh, James, did you send him in here?" she asked, only now apparently noticing him. "Can I keep him? I've already named him Clyde. If it's a her, though, I'll go with Bonnie. What do you think?"  
  
By now Sirius had come to investigate.  
  
"She didn't scream? What kind of a girl are you, anyway?"  
  
Lily flashed a sweet smile, the one she used to use for her teachers.  
  
"One of a kind."  
  
Lily watched the stunned expressions on the boys' faces. Unable to keep a straight face anymore, she burst out laughing, which set them off, too. By the time a tallish, greasy-haired kid about Sirius' and James' ages stepped into the doorway, Lily had been introduced all around and learned that the three boys she hadn't reall met were Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, and Remus Lupin. They were all in second year and had known each other since they were about three, and James was just telling everyone how he and Lily had met the other day.  
  
"So, anyway, you know how that Lucius Malfoy was trying to get me with a permanent vomit-breath hex yesterday? Well, anyway, he aimed pretty good for once, so I had to run, and I smashed into Lily." He smiled at her. "And I'm pretty glad I did." Sirius and Remus started to sn igger.  
  
"Yo, James, don't let Sheila know that you said that! She'd probably start jinxing you with all the spells she could get out of Snape; you know he likes her!"  
  
"Indeed?" A hard, cold voice behind them made them all jump.  
  
James rolled his eyes. "Snape, it's not exactly a secret."  
  
Snape shook his long, very greasy hair. "What isn't a secret?"  
  
Sirius raised thick, dark eyebrows. "That you sent Sheila a large bouquet full of roses last Saturday,--"  
  
"Which you bought at 'The Rosette Shop', three shops away from that large fountain in the middle of Fraeden Square." Remus finished.  
  
Snape's waxy cheeks went a bit rosy. He immediately turned and swished out of the compartment as all four boys collapsed on the floor, laughing.  
  
James recovered himself first. "Tracking Hex and Sheila's big mouth. Works every time." He started to laugh again and had to swallow several Anti- Laugh chocolate worms--at least, that's what he thought they were, but he grabbed several Ice Mice instead and started to shiver and shake, teeth chattering. "Pink roses with a red rim! Paid sixteen Sickles for them!" he gasped out. Lily joined in, trying to imagine Snape and Sheila as a couple. She started to giggle uncontrollably. By this time, the train had already started on its way to Hogwarts. Lily was the first one who noticed the landscape moving. "Guys, did any of you notice the train leave?"  
  
Remus looked puzzled. "Why? It didn't, did it--OH, S--"  
  
"Petrifocus Totalus!" James shouted, pulling out his wand before Remus had a chance to finish his sentence. Remus' arms snapped to his sides until he resembled a piece of wood, besides being cut off in mid-sentence. "Remus, that was uncalled for. Sulatot Sucofirtep." Remus returned to normal, glaring at James. "What happened?" Sirius asked. "It sounded like something important."  
  
Remus scowled. "It was. I left my trunk at the station." There was stunned silence--they were a bit apprehensive of what Remus would say if they started to laugh as loudly as they wanted to.  
  
"You genius." Peter remarked. "How are you planning to get it back?"  
  
"You're not even worried? I had a whole crate of Dungbombs in there! What if it's stolen?"  
  
Lily raised an eyebrow. "Who in their right mind would steal a pack of Dungbombs?"  
  
Sirius snorted with a bit of unrepressable laughter. "Especially from his trunk. Everyone knows the story of how Malfoy tried to steal all of his extra robes and got his eyebrows inflamed by the Burglar Hex James invented. They wouldn't go out for about three minutes. Madam Pomfrey kept him in the hospital wing for a week!"  
  
James sighed, with a dreamy expression on his face. "He still had the scars at the end of last year. Maybe his eyebrows are actually growing again!"  
  
Lily turned to James. "You invented a hex?"  
  
He looked a bit embarrrassed. "Yeah, only a few. They're not that good, really." He stopped as Sirius snorted again.  
  
"James, you invented fifty-two jinxes by the time you left Hogwarts last year." He turned to Lily, explaining. "One of them, a sort of Nail-Loss one, he put on Professor McGonagall's wand, and the next time she picked it up--she'd just done her nails and was wearing sandals, since it was near the end of the school year and was really hot--anyway--we had twenty scarlet nails falling onto her desk and onto the floor. We were in the class next door when she started to scream like a banshee and ran to the hospital room--after picking up all of her nails."  
  
Lily started to hyperventilate, she was laughing so hard.  
  
After Remus and Peter had gone up to the one compartment that held about two teachers to tell them about Remus not having a trunk, a thin, blond witch stopped by the compartment with a cart.  
  
"Anything to eat, kids?" she asked in a mournful sort of tone. James and Sirius handed over two Galleons and the order:  
  
"The usual, please." They were immediately handed a plastic bag from the bottom shelf with a tag attached to it, saying: "Potter, Black, Pettigrew, and Lupin." Seeing Lily's puzzled face, the witch explained.  
  
"They've bought the same thing six times since they first got on this train, so I just get their things ready ahead of time." With that, she handed Sirius two pitchers of pumpking juice and two Knuts. "You know where I am when you get hungry again. When." She turned to Lily. "No need to buy anything, dear. These four have enough to last seven giants for three weeks. I don't know how they manage to eat three bags of this stuff." Shaking her head, she trundled along to the next compartment, leaving Lily to stare at the contents of the bag, which had been emptied all over three seats, James, Sirius, and the floor.  
  
The bag had held about five dozen Chocolate Frogs, twelve bags of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, two dozen Acid Pops, four blood-flavored packs of Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, along with some that was pumpkin flavored. There were also about seventy Limited Edition Hysteria Gumdrops and a good eight hundred things called Toothflossing Stringmints, which had a label on them saying "New! Do Not Miss!"  
  
James glanced at the label scornfully. "Yeah, right. We've been getting them delivered to Hogwarts and to our homes for about three years now. 'New!' But the reason we get so much is because this has to last us the whole year, and we hate brushing teeth between every single load of candy." he added at seeing Lily's amazed face when she saw the amount of Stringmints."  
  
By the time Remus and Peter got back, Lily, James, Sirius, and some passers- by had finished all of the Chocolate Frogs and half of the rest, (except for the stringmints) along with one of the two pitchers of pumpkin juice.  
  
"Hey! Where's all the food?" Peter asked, indignant.  
  
Lily stared. "All the food? There's still half the bag left!"  
  
James looked at her incredulously. "For them, half a bag of candy? I think last year I bet on nine minutes, seventeen seconds, though I might have to shorten it to nine ten. They keep going faster every time. Now, where...Oh, yeah, right, here." Pulling out a stopwatch, he leaned back over his shoulder to Remus and Lupin. "Ready, set, go!"  
  
Lily watched in amazement. Pulling herself together, she managed to lean over to James and look at the stopwatch.  
  
"Nine minutes, nine seconds. What, why, when, where, and how did you guys even get all this unwrapped so fast?"  
  
The compartment was littered with wrappers. Not one piece of candy remained besides the Toothflossing Stringmints.  
  
Lily was free to read for the next part of the trip, as all of the boys were fast asleep. Outside, it grew darker and darker, until finally Lily had to turn on the extra lights in the compartment and draw the scarlet velvet curtains in front of the window. She wrote a letter to her family, which she placed in a small, golden compartment under Alisande's cage, which, at the beginning of the trip, she had placed overhead so the owl wouldn't go nuts at the sight of the mice, which were still running around.  
  
Around seven, she went up to the front to ask when they would be arriving. The witch with the cart told her about an hour, then went back to sleep.  
  
When she got back to the compartment, she found Snape and a pale blond boy inside, with drawn wands. James was already covered in syrup and feathers, while Sirius was snoring with what looked like mud in his mouth. Peter and Remus were untouched, so far. Lily felt her eyes grow hot again. She dashed inside.  
  
"And what do you think you're doing?" she demanded, indignantly.  
  
Snape and the blond boy whirled around, defensive. The blond boy raised his wand. "And who are you, may I ask?"  
  
"Lily Evans. How are you. Nice to meet you. All right, I'm done with politeness for the day." She pulled out her wand, even though she hadn't even learned any spells yet. Her mind went back to the one James had performed to shut Remus up. "Petrifocus Totalus!" she shouted, and immediately the pressure behind her eyes melted away. She blinked, and when she opened her eyes again, Malfoy was lying on the floor, limbs frozen in distorted positions, while Snape was frozen in the very attitude of running his finger up his nose.  
  
"Oops. Guess I'd better work on that one." Together with Remus and Peter, who had awakened when she had shouted, she pushed the two statues out into the hallway. "And stay out." She slammed the door.  
  
Inside, Remus had freed James and Sirius of their syrup, feathers, and mud. All of them were staring at Lily.  
  
Sirius was the first to speak.  
  
"How many times did you try that spell at home?"  
  
Lily shrugged. "I didn't. This was my first bit of magic--I remembered what James did to Remus, that's all."  
  
James gulped. "Do you know how many times we practiced that spell just to get as far as you did, just now?"  
  
Remus answered for him. "Five weeks of endless practicing, just so we could use it on Malfoy."  
  
Lily frowned. "Malfoy?"  
  
"Yeah, Lucius Malfoy, that blond guy who was in here just a minute ago."  
  
"Oh. Well...is that good?"  
  
"Y'know, James," Sirius overlooked her question, "I think you might have some competition."  
  
James looked puzzled. "Competition?"  
  
Sirius nodded, and Remus looked from one to the other, trying ot figure out what on earth they meant. A few seconds later, his eye had a gleam in it, he wore a knowing grin, and looked over to Lily out of the corner of his eye. "You two couldn't keep even your own secret if your life depended on it." By the end of the trip, when a bodiless voice echoed through the corridors, Lily had heard all about James', Sirius', and Remus' opinions on everyone in the school. She also was told which houses to avoid getting into, if possible.  
  
"Slytherin is somewhere I don't think you'd like, since you attacked Snape and Malfoy. Gryffindor is the best--" here James had his narrative interrupted by hoots and high-fives from the rest--"which is because we're in it." (More hoots.) "Ravenclaw has a whole bunch of snobs, but Sheila and her group are in there, so you might like that. Hufflepuff--well, enough said."  
  
"So, you'd recommend Gryffindor?"  
  
Sirius nodded. "Absolutely. Listen, I don't really think, when they test you to see what house you'll be in, that you should scream all that much. If you do, they'll put you in Hufflepuff."  
  
Lily looked up. "Scream? Why?"  
  
Remus leaned forward. "It's the Sorting Ceremony. I think Malfoy still has the scars."  
  
Peter sn iggered at Lily's worried face.  
  
"Hogwarts isn't exactly what you expected, is it?"  
  
"No--not really--Why would I scream and what scars?" She caught sight of James' face, which had gone all red. "James!"  
  
He looked up. "What?"  
  
"Tell me."  
  
He glanced at his friends, bit his lip, then shook his head. "Guys, this is getting really mean."  
  
Remus looked shocked. "But, James, we took an oath to do this to every first year! You can't mean you're backing out!"  
  
Lily crossed her arms in front of her chest. "To do what to every first year?"  
  
James gave in. "Listen, the only thing you'll have to do is put on a hat. I'm sorry, really." He stood up and walked towards the door. "I'm going up front."  
  
"Yeah, right." Sirius leaned out of the doorway. "Chicken!"  
  
At that moment, the voice echoed through the corridors again, telling all students to put their things into their trunks and to get dressed in theri robes if they had not already done so. The boys left the compartment, while Lily made sure the door was locked and the curtain that covered the door's pane of glass was secured tightly. She reached into her trunk and pulled out her robes. She changed quickly, which was good, for the train stopped just thirty seconds after she had finished.  
  
The announcer echoed through the corridor again. "Please leave your trunks on the train. They will be taken up to the castle separately."  
  
Stepping off of the train, Lily found herself surrounded by a clear, starry night. There were no clouds, just a crescent moon hiding behind a tree.  
  
She heard a thick, throaty voice calling over the crowd of students. "First years over here! First years, this way!" The speaker wasn't exactly hard to miss; in fact, just the opposite, as he ws twice as tall as an ordinary human and three times as broad. "First years this way!"  
  
About two hundred kids just Lily's age had surrounded him, a good half of them scared and anxious. Lily scanned the crowd, hoping for someone she knew. That someone found her first.  
  
"Lily!"  
  
Someone had tapped her on the back.  
  
"Amanda!"  
  
"Lily, aren't you scared? I heard something about the Sorting ceremony hurting a bit."  
  
Lily couldn't help it. She pulled a Sirius and snorted with laughter. "Don't worry. They love doing that to first years. All you have to do is try on a hat."  
  
Amanda breathed. "Good. That's a relief. Eeek! I can't wait!"  
  
Lily rolled her eyes. The first thing she'd try to learn was how to make Amanda never say "Eeek!" again. After three years, she was getting sick and tired of that word. 


	3. The Sorting and a meeting with Snape

The giant herded about two hundred first years towards several boats that were tied to the shore of the lake. "No more than five to a boat!"  
  
Lily, Amanda, and two other girls climbed into one. The other girls obviously were twins; they shared the same brown hair and frightened expression when the giant spoke, this time to the boats. "All right then-- move off!"  
  
With a gentle, swinging motion, the boats started to float to an unknown destination on the lake. The twins were clutching the wooden rims and looked sick; as if they might hurl if anyone spoke to them.  
  
Lily didn't speak to them.  
  
She was enraptured by the starry sky, and anticipated eagerly wherever they were going. She didn't even notice as someone in another boat paddled over to hers, noiselessly. Lily felt a tap on her shoulder.  
  
She whirled around and swallowed a surprised noise in her throat and a start.  
  
"James Potter, what on earth?"  
  
He grinned sheepishly. "I just want to try on the Sorting Hat again. Just to see what it says."  
  
Lily was about to make an incredulous remark, but he cut her off, pointing.  
  
"Look!"  
  
She gasped. In front of her, a tall castle towered against the starry sky. Light streamed from every window, including the tops of about twelve towers.  
  
"I-is that--"  
  
James grinned. "Yeah, that's Hogwarts. Neat, isn't it?"  
  
Lily gulped. "It's beautiful."  
  
Once inside, they were welcomed by a rather stern-looking witch with her hair in a tight knot, Professor Megan McGonagall.  
  
After explaining briefly about their future at Hogwarts with their separate Houses, she led then towards two huge doors, behind which, judging from the noise, the whole rest of the school was gathered. The noise increased rapidly, and the doors opened by themselves.  
  
As if they were cattle, the first years were herded towards a stage, with all the eyes of the school, issuing from four long tables, upon them. A stool was set upon the stage, serving as a pedestal for a tattered and withered wizarding hat. A rip opened near the brim, and the hat began to sing.  
  
"Gryffindor, a mighty man  
  
Did many worthy things.  
  
And one out of the best he'd done  
  
Was give me brains of kings.  
  
He'd grown tired, year by year,  
  
Of picking students,see,  
  
So here I am, here in his place,  
  
To choose for him with glee.  
  
In Gryffindor I place  
  
The bold of heart and mind,  
  
Those who will forevermore  
  
Be the bravest one can find.  
  
In Hufflepuff the workers hard  
  
Were put to work and serve  
  
Those honest and hardworking souls  
  
From their path have never swerved.  
  
Ravenclaw got clever ones  
  
Who, brilliant of sound mind,  
  
Were, along with all their fellows  
  
The smartest one could find.  
  
Slytherin, that slinky soul  
  
Chose people just like he.  
  
Peculiar in his tastes he was  
  
And stubborn, (just like me).  
  
So put me on, I'll try to see  
  
Where you should belong  
  
Trust me, I bear the brains of kings  
  
And have never yet been wrong."  
  
The Great Hall burst into applause as the hat finished, the students lined up alphabetically and the first student walked over to the stool.  
  
"Dennis Benson." the hat announced. "HUFFLEPUFF!" One of the four large tables burst into applause.  
  
"Margaret Chandler."  
  
"RAVENCLAW!"  
  
"Heather Davis!"  
  
There was a good thirty-second pause, then--  
  
"RAVENCLAW!"  
  
"Lily Evans!"  
  
The hat slipped far over her head, mumbling to itself. "Now, I think you have an equally good chance in all three, don't you? Definitely. Now, let's see...I've never yet done eeny-meeny-miney-mo, but where do you want to go?"  
  
Lily clutched the stool. "Gryffindor, please," she thought. "Pretty please, hat?"  
  
"All right, then, dear--GRYFFINDOR!" This last was shouted to the whole hall, leaving Lily with ringing ears as she quickly plucked the hat off, handing it to the next student as fast as possible.  
  
She threaded her way as fast as possible to the table with the most applause. With pink cheeks, she saw Remus, Sirius, and Peter waving to her to come and sit down. She slid into a seat, smiling to herself.  
  
The next few students she didn't know. About fifty of them went by until Lily's palms hurt and it was Amanda's turn.  
  
"Amanda Milton!"  
  
The hat didn't even touch her head before it belted out a "GRYFFINDOR!" She came down from the stage and took a seat next to Lily.  
  
The last student up, Lily could tell, was James, though his hat was pulled down way over his forehead. He slipped on the hat.  
  
"Potter, James!--Wait, wait just a minute there! Off my stage this instant! That was uncalled for! I should make you a Slytherin for that. Come back here!" James had torn off the hat and was racing for the edge of the stage and his table. The hat following him, propelling himself off of other's heads. James dived under the table amidst roaring laughter, and the hat followed. There were several shrieks, and then the hat emerged with James' ear caught in its brim. "Nevewr--evewr--do--fwhat--again!" The hat let go. "Understand?" It whacked James around the ears and finally had to be carried off by Professor McGonagall.  
  
Amid roaring laughter, the plates in front of the students filled and diverted their attention.  
  
James sank into his seat next to Lily, exhausted and with very red ears. "Wow, that hat was aggressive!"  
  
Lily couldn't help it. She started to hyperventilate again.  
  
Dinner was finally over around one o'clock, and the prefects led the new students to their dormitories. The Gryffindor first years stopped in front of a portrait of a fat lady in a pink dress, after climbing many winding staircases and being scared mindless by the Slytherin's ghost, the Bloody Baron, who swooped down among them, his robes all stained with silver.  
  
"Password?" the fat lady asked.  
  
The prefect cleared his throat, but before he could say a word, James jumped in. "Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia." The entire Gryffindor house stared at him as the portrait swung open to reveal a comfortable common room with a blazing fire. James shrugged. "It's the fear of long words."  
  
The Gryffindors erupted.  
  
Later in the evening, when all had said goodnight, Lily lay in her large four-poster, thinking about that day's events. What on earth had motivated James and his friends to stay with her? She was just a first year. But she had to admit--she was really glad that James had stayed. He was kind of cute...  
  
The next morning, around six, Lily woke up to a scuffling noise near her dormitory's fireplace. She sat straight up in bed, groggily thinking it might be Petunia going through her things. She blinked, then remembered where she was. Swinging her feet out of bed and into her slippers, she caught sight of the disturber. Lily squealed.  
  
The scuffler was a sort of elf, dressed in a toga-like piece of cloth with the Hogwarts emblem on the front. It had large eyes, a sort of green, and long batlike ears. Turning around, it saw her looking at it, picked up its tongs and dustpan, and fled out the door, slamming it loudly.  
  
The door woke the rest of the dormitory's inmates up. Lily saw Amanda in one of the beds near the window, the twins from the boat near the door, and two blonde girls in the other two beds. All of them were rather grumpy and groggy, and all of them wanted to know what had happened.  
  
Lily reached for a dressing gown. "It was a sort of elf thing, tending the fire. I guess I shouldn't have screamed; I think I frightened it away. It slammed the door when it left."  
  
One of the twins sighed. "Elf or not, I'm going back to bed." And she did, falling back on her pillow almost instantly and starting to snore.  
  
Lily rolled her eyes, as did one of the blonde girls.  
  
"How did we ever sleep through that?" the blonde girl who had rolled her eyes asked.  
  
Amanda shrugged, tossing her long brown hair over one shoulder. "I'm just glad I did. I don't know how I did, but boy, am I glad I did."  
  
They got dressed quickly and went down to the commmon room, which was still relatively empty. There were about four third years and one fifth year, none of them looking quite happy or awake. One of them started grumbling the minute they came in.  
  
"I hate poltergeists. Have you met ours yet?" one of the third years asked.  
  
Lily shook her head no. "I didn't even know we had one, to be honest."  
  
The fifth year groaned. "His name's Peeves. He just moved in last year, and you'd better be thankful he hasn't thought up anything worse than dropping waterballons on us."  
  
The third year that had spoken before snorted. "Water balloons? Is that all he did to you? I don't suppose you've had him empty your trunk over you, using the excuse that he thought you were cold. We've been up since four, cleaning my stuff up and nursing bruises."  
  
Several other students had started to filter in, all of them dressed, some of them wet, and all complaining about Peeves. Saying goodbye to a continued nap in an armchair in front of the fire, Lily went downstairs to the Great Hall, hoping for a plentiful breakfast.  
  
She got her wish. The golden plates were already filled with biscuits, bacon, porridge, toast, fruit, pancakes , and all sorts of eggs. She helped herself to some of everything, wondering how she could still have an appetite after last night's feast.  
  
Amanda had entered with Lily, choosing a seat right next to her. "What is the point of a poltergeist, I'd like to know? Practically all other creatures have sense, but poltergeists?" She went on like that all through her bacon and eggs, and Lily sat next to her, bored, grumpy, and very tired.  
  
She was relieved when some of the other students started to come in to breakfast, among them her four friends from the train last night.  
  
Sirius pulled out a chair across from her, almost unnaturally awake. "Morning, Lily!"  
  
She glared at him under half-open eyelids. "Go away and celebrate your awakeness somewhere else. I'm trying to sleep." Her head dropped back onto her arms, ignoring the schedule Professor McGonagall was handing out that had landed on top of her milk glass.  
  
James sat down on the other side of Lily. He picked up the schedule and squinted at it. "Hey, you've got Charms first period with us! We didn't take our exams last year, so we're back. Oh...have fun second period-- you've got double Potions with the Slytherins...like I said, have fun...Herbology, not that bad...you've got that with the Ravenclaws...you've got flying with the Slytherins--that seems to be a tradition, Gryffindor doubling with Slytherin in Potions and flying--oh, thanks, Professor." This last was to Professor McGonagall, who was making second rounds with schedules. "Let's see...hey, Sirius, we have Transfiguration second...remember the Nail-Loss Charm?"  
  
Lily raised her head again. "James, it's too early in the morning. Go back to bed." James looked at her incredulously. "It's eight-thirty, the first school day of the year, and breakfast time. What more could you want and why on earth are you so tired?"  
  
Lily scowled. "Have you ever heard of noisy elves and poltergeists at six a.m.? I think that would explain my monstrous desire for a large mug of straight caffeine with only a little bit of coffee."  
  
Remus broke in. "James, all the girls are gonna be like this today. Peeves attacked half of them and the other half were awakened by the noise he made. If you don't want to be clawed to death, I'd suggest you leave them alone."  
  
James shrugged. "Oh, look, there's the mail!" He pointed towards the ceiling, which had been a grayish blue, but now sported a thick, dark cloud of owls. Two swooped down at their table with letters, one a dark gray, the other an eagle tint. James and Peter took the newspapers each of the owls held and handed over pieces of biscuit and bacon to the owls, which took flight immediately after their breakfast.  
  
Lily raised her head enough to look over James' shoulder at the paper, which bore the headline 'The Daily Prophet' in dark blue and gold on parchment. The headline was in bold, over a picture of a smiling blonde witch. "Mandy Mysenclaw Promoted", was the article the front page devoted itself to. James skimmed the paper quickly, then folded it up, a bit disappointed.  
  
"Nothing good in there today." Sirius shrugged.  
  
A bell resounded through the corridors, and the multitude in the Great Hall started moving off to class.  
  
Charms was held in a rather large classroom, as there were about forty in the class. They included Amanda, the brunette twins, whose names were Heather and Anne, the two blonde girls, Eva and Vanessa, James, Sirius, Peter, Remus, Malfoy, and Snape. Lily managed to get seats next to her four new friends, which unfortunately were only two away from Malfoy and Snape.  
  
Lily got her Charms book out, laid it on her desk along with parchment, ink, and a quill, and turned to James. "So, why is half this class part of the second year? You said you didn't take your exam in the Great Hall."  
  
James nodded. "We had a large earthquake last year, right before our last exam, and we had to leave Hogwarts early. They also forgot to give us our notes not to use magic over the holidays that year." he added offhandedly.  
  
Lily slumped in her chair. "You mean we can't use magic over the summer?" James nodded. "Darn. I was hoping to hex my sister."  
  
Sirius turned around. "You have a sister? I didn't see her on the train. Or at the Sorting, come to that."  
  
"Well, you couldn't, could you? She's a Muggle, and one of the most annoying ones there is."  
  
Snape leaned over. "You have a Muggle family member?"  
  
Lily shrugged. "So what if I do? So are my parents." she said, not understanding James' and Sirius' 'shhh' signs.  
  
Malfoy turned around as well. "You're from a Muggle family?"  
  
"Yeah. What's it to ya?" Lily shot back.  
  
"You filthy little Mudblood!" Malfoy and Snape had evil gleams in their eyes. Snape pulled out his wand.  
  
Behind Lily, James did the same, pointing his at Snape while Sirius covered Malfoy. Snape reacted first.  
  
"Gefriere!" Lily fell out of her desk, shaking. Her lips were turning blue, and she shivered with cold. Behind her closed eyelids, her eyes went blank. James and Sirius had forgotten their opponents, who settled back in their desks lazily. Jumping out of his chair as well as half of the class, James was the first to reach Lily. He gripped her by the shoulders, hard, shaking her. "Lily, wake up! Lily!" Remus was feeling her pulse, eyes wide.  
  
James whirled around to Snape. "Undo this right now!"  
  
Snape yawned and stretched, not bothering to reach for his wand.  
  
Sirius pointed his wand at Malfoy. "Undo this or else, Malfoy!"  
  
Lucius leaned back in his chair, running his fingers through his white- blond hair. "I can't."  
  
James turned white. "What do you mean, you can't?"  
  
"I mean I can't. We never looked up the counter-curse, that's why we can't."  
  
Losing the color in his face as well, Sirius turned to the rest of the class. "Go get help!" About fifteen people ran for a teacher; the others were trying to cover Lily with their cloaks.  
  
Five minutes later, the fifteen students had returned with the news that the teachers were in a staff meeting and had charmed the door so no one could come close enough even to yell through the wood. Lily wasn't even shaking anymore, while about twelve of the class had dashed to the library, trying to find the counter-curse. The handful of Slytherins in the class were laughing and not hiding it; they weren't trying to help, either.  
  
A limp figure was huddled in black cloaks, looking almost like a mummy. Her eyes were sinking into her head; her limbs could have been boneless. James had resorted to slapping her cheeks to regain her consciousness, and he was about to give up, when he heard a shout.  
  
Amanda came racing over with a large book. "Here. The index says: Countercurse to Freezing Spell. Page 473." She flipped through the pages as quickly as she could. It wasn't fast enough for James, who sn atched the book from her and immediately found page four-seventy-two.  
  
"Four seventy--SNAPE, I'M GOING TO--" He had to be forcibly restrained from attacking Snape both with wand and fists. Sirius picked Lily up from where she had fallen after James' abrupt rising. "James, what on earth?"  
  
James shoved the book under Sirius' nose. "Here, look!"  
  
Sirius' mouth dropped open. Page 473 had been torn out. 


	4. Hospitals and Quidditchcould someone be ...

Sirius sank back onto his heels, looking as though a lightning bolt had hit him. "There-there's no countercurse?"  
  
James turned on Malfoy. "There is, and one of them has the page." He pointed his wand again. "Hand it over. Now."  
  
Snape shrugged. "I threw it in the common room fire."  
  
Remus blew several fuses. "YOU DID WHAT?"  
  
"All right, all right, boys, now settle down! What's all this about?"  
  
A pretty blond witch, about thirty years old, had entered the room. She wore pale pink robes and had tied her curls back with a darker pink ribbon under her hat.  
  
James tried to raise Lily to her feet and failed. "Professor, Snape did some kind of freeze thing, and we don't know the countercurse!"  
  
The teacher knelt down next to Lily and felt her forehead and cheeks. She stared up at James in polite bewilderment.  
  
"There's nothing wrong with her, not as far as I can see."  
  
James stared. "There isn't? But, Professor--" He stopped as Lily opened her eyes and blinked. "Lily! Are you all right?"  
  
Vanessa and Sirius bent over her. "Is she awake? How'd you do that?"  
  
Lily felt as though she had been buried and taken out of her grave again; as though someone had set one of the Pyramids on her chest. "What happened?" She looked up at James, who was holding her head in his lap and sat up quickly. "What happened?" she repeated.  
  
No one could answer that, because no one exactly knew, except Snape and Malfoy, and they didn't volunteer anything. There were several halfhearted er's while Lily struggled to free herself out of the mountains of cloaks that she had been swathed in.  
  
James tried to explain. "Professor Zimmermann, Snape did this kind of freeze hex and Lily, here, went all cold and stiff, sort of as if she were dead or something."  
  
Professor Zimmermann frowned. "Lily Evans, I think it is?"  
  
Lily nodded weakly, too worn out to answer.  
  
"Well, I think you'd better go to the hospital wing, just in case. I'm not punishing anyone, since I have no evidende, but I don't want any magic in here except what I have assigned, all right?" The class nodded. "Sirius, would you accompany Miss Evans to the hospital wing, since I don't think she knows where it is yet. Class, back to your seats." She turned to Lily. "Dear, you can leave your things. I'll have someone take them back to the dormitory later." James turned to Sirius. "Hey, Sirius, I can take her there--you don't have to bother." He reached for Lily.  
  
Sirius shook his head determinedly. "No. I was told to go, and I will. C'mon, Lily." He put her arm around his shoulders, acting as a prop, and together they left the classroom, leaving behind a fuming James.  
  
They reached the hospital wing and introduced Lily's problem to Miss Hilton, the hospital nurse. She tutted a bit and then told Lily she'd have to stay for a day or so, since she never knew what aftereffects that charm might have. She handed Lily a long, white nightgown and bustled out of the room.  
  
Lily sank onto her assigned bed, feeling like a lump of lead. "Sirius, I don't know how you managed to get me this far. I feel like I weigh ten thousand pounds and then some."  
  
Sirius smiled at her. "You don't. Are you sure you'll be all right? There's nothing else you need?"  
  
Lily's eyelids drooped. "Sleep?"  
  
Sirius grinned. "That might help. If you're not asleep by lunch, I'll send you a card with a Sleeping Breeze inside. That might help."  
  
Lily reached for the nightgown. "Sirius--" she managed to stand up-- "Sirius, thanks." She gave him a hug, dropping back onto the pillow right afterwards. For some reason, Sirius' face was red and he left quickly, after his "Anytime."  
  
As fast as she could, Lily changed into her nightgown behind a screen, feeling like and even worse than dead. She had just enough energy to take her hair down from the ponytail it had been in all day and climb into bed; Miss Hilton had to pull the covers over her.  
  
She woke goodnedd knows how much later, with a bowl of soup beside her. Lily spotted some movement near a door and called to it. "Miss Hilton?"  
  
The plump witch darted over. "Did you want something, doll?"  
  
Lily wrinkled her nose at the 'doll' part. "How long have I been asleep?"  
  
"Goodness, dear, you slept like a corpse. I'd say ten hours, dear. It's around eight now, and I suppose you'll have some visitors as soon as dinner's over." She gestured towards the bowl on the nightstand. "Eat your soup!"  
  
Lily obeyed, though each mouthful was like sawdust. She kept straining her ears for the noise of people after dinner downstairs and hardly noticed that the bowl was empty and that she was still dipping the spoon in. She couldn't have been more relieved when a buzz downstairs announced that dinner was over and that she'd have some company.  
  
The first person that came in was Amanda. She brought several treacle tarts up and a get-well card from Eva, who, she said, was buried under homework. Vanessa followed, with some Chocolate Frogs and Every Flavor Beans. Close behind Vanessa were Peter and Remus, who were almost buried under a large bouquet of tiger lilies.  
  
"Because that's what you look like. It makes no sense, we know, but they're out of everything else but red roses."  
  
Sirius was last, with the get-well card and a small teddy bear with a scarf and mittens. "Just because you had that Freezing Hex put on you. Hope you get better soon."  
  
He and Amanda stayed with her until she fell asleep, which didn't take as long as Lily had thought it might, as they were telling her about their classes after she left. Amanda talked the most. "So, you know, Snape didn't get into trouble at all? And neither did Malfoy? Well, right after class, James and Remus sorta cornered him. I don't know what they did, but afterwards, Snape would have solemnly sworn he was a hedgehog to the end of his days. If I were them, I'd have made him wash his hair, but then, they're guys, they don't think of stuff like that."  
  
They left her no homework, and the day would have been perfect, except...Why on earth hadn't James come?  
  
Miss Hilton released Lily from the hospital wing the next morning, just in time for breakfast. Lily was still a bit shaky, but she managed to get dressed, make the bed, gather her things, and walk downstairs without collapsing. Putting her things in the dormitory, she ran over all the faces she'd seen yesterday. She had awakened after Snape hexed her with her head in James' lap, and he'd sounded really worried, so why didn't he at least come and see her? She puzzled over it all the way down to the Great Hall, where she slid into her usual seat, across from Sirius and next to James and Amanda. All of them were happy to see her, all of them waved to her to come and sit down, all except James. Not thirty seconds after she had sat down, James took his newspaper and left to go sit next to Sheila. Lily, Sirius, Remus, and Peter stared at his empty seat.  
  
"What on earth was that about?"  
  
"I don't know...?"  
  
"He didn't even say 'see you guys later; what's wrong with him?"  
  
"It wasn't my fault, was it?"  
  
Sirius shook his head. "Lily, the last thing it is is your fault. He's just in a bad mood. He'll be back before evening."  
  
But James wasn't. He sat as far away from Lily and Sirius as he could during Charms and didn't show up for lunch or dinner at all. No one knew where he went and no one had any idea why. Lily didn't talk much all that day either, and it wasn't until Amanda suggested a walk around the grounds that she cheered up a bit.  
  
Outside, the sun was setting over the lake and twilight set in. Lily and Amanda found themselves chattering aimlessly about random things and about their families and about how wonderful Hogwarts was, but Lily couldn't really pay attention. All she thought of was James' strange behavior that day.  
  
They were just turning back to the castle when Lily turned back around.  
  
"What?"  
  
Lily frowned. "I don't know, but I saw something.  
  
"You saw what?"  
  
"It was a sort of large bird--There it is again!" She pointed to a black speck that had crossed the rising moon.  
  
"What do you think it is?"  
  
Amanda shrugged. "I don't know and I'm going inside. See you later." Amanda left Lily standing on the front steps.  
  
Lily didn't stay on the front steps. She crept towards the black dot, which had landed near the lake in the meantime. She tried to be as silent as she could manage, and, since she'd used a Petrifocus Totalus on the grass blades, she succeeded very nicely. Lily crept behind a tree, just the right distance away from the person, for so it was, who was sitting on the grass with a broom beside him.  
  
James was sitting by the lake, staring into the ripples. He didn't speak or move for about thirty minutes; then he got up and went back to the castle, but he walked and looked as if he was carrying all of Versailles on his back.  
  
The next few weeks were pleasantly average; James was speaking again and Lily had learned several of the jinxes he had invented. He was in the common room one evening, teaching Lily the 'Sprout' hex; it caused the victim to sprout whiskers, fur, and cat's ears. James was being the victim, and so far, Lily had only managed to give him long, droopy whiskers that reached to his shoulders. She'd tried the charm about a dozen times, and James still wasn't lookng like a cat.  
  
"All right. One more time. Forestia!"  
  
James closed his eyes.  
  
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for the whiskers to grow down to your waist, I really didn't!" Lily gasped out. "I just can't do this. I just can't!"  
  
"Yes, you can." Sirius' voice came from behind an armchair; he'd been watching the whole session unnoticed. James jumped and looked rather uncomfortable.  
  
Sirius stood up. "Here, let me show you." He took Lily's hand in his, swished it once and pointed. "You do that." She repeated the motions. "Good. Now try it with the words."  
  
Lily took a deep breath, swished and pointed. "Forestia!"  
  
James' face, which had been clean except for several waist-length whiskers, had sprouted a furry coat that reminded Lily somewhat of a cat. His ears moved to the top of his head and grew pointy and furry. He wasn't James anymore; he was--well, strange.  
  
"I did it! I really did it! Oh, Sirius, wow!" And she hugged him tightly, making him exaggerate a choking sound. "I really did it!"  
  
James' face grew cold. He threw his wand down on top of his unfinished Charms homework and stormed up to the boys' dormitory.  
  
Puzzled when James left so suddenly, Lily went back up to her dormitory as well. She met Amanda on the steps and got chased all the way up to her four- poster, since she'd tried out her 'Sprout' charm again and succeeded. She sat on her bed for a bit, looking out onto the lawns, when a darkish shape swished towards her window and started rapping on it.  
  
"Alisande!" Lily opened the window quickly and took the rather oversized letter from her owl, who took off towards the Owlery almost immediately. Pulling the window shut and drawing the curtains, she leaned back into her pillows to read. The first sheet was from her mother.  
  
Darling, how are you? You've had several calls from your friends, they're all wondering where you are. I can't exactly tell them or give them your address (since I don't even know it myself), but I told them that you'd write (I told them you're at boarding school in America). But if you ever get a letter written, let Alisande bring that to me, too, and I'll see that your friends get it. Not much is happening here; I've been trying out those potion ingredients and Petunia went to a movie last week with Vernon Dursley.  
  
Your father wants to send this, so I'd better say 'bye.  
  
Love, Mom  
  
Lily smiled. She put the letter under her pillow, wondering what the results of the experiments were.  
  
The second and third pages were from her father, with an answer to her question.  
  
I suppose your mother told you that she has tried out those Diagon Alley beetle eyes things and the dragon liver mess. I don't blame Petunia for practically moving in at that Dursley's, as this house STINKS. Stinks as in bad. It's also filled with almost permanent smoke, which won't leave even if we turn on all the fans and open the windows. Anyway, we had some serious rain, and I've pasted some pictures of your mother's garden, which, well, isn't a garden anymore, to put it bluntly. It's more like a rather dirty pond. (Here he had taped some pictures of a sort of mud puddle.) Petunia has taken over your room; transformed it into a cross between a greenhouse and a den. It has too many plants in it, to put it kindly. I don't think you can even see the window from the door, or vice versa. But I've told your friends that asked for you that you moved in with your grandmother, which I later found out was a mistake, as your mother told them you went to boarding school. You'll have to explain; I have no words or imagination that will fit this mess. I've made Petunia write something, but she's insisting on using the last few lines of this page and not getting her own sheet. I just think she doesn't want to keep any sort of contact with evil witches who would sweep down on her and cut her eyes out as soon as they have learned how to. (Here he drew a flower with a few petals.)  
  
Love you,  
  
(I love you not.  
  
I love you.  
  
I love you not.)  
  
Dad  
  
The rest of the page (about two lines) were taken up with a sort of scribbly writing.  
  
Lily, you shuld nevr have left. I haf to do all srts of expleinin were you went. And so ha I took posessn of your room. Ha ha. Petunia.  
  
Lily raised her eyebrows, then, setting the letters on her night-table, smiled a bit. "The first thing I need to do when I graduate is make Petunia learn how to spell. That was pathetic."  
  
She yawned, then, taking a look at the clock, which read ten o'clock. Lily quickly slipped on her nightgown and, getting into bed, drew the four- poster's curtains.  
  
The next morning, Lily raced downstairs to breakfast. For once, Peeves had decided to move on to the Ravenclaw dormitories, so for two days, Lily had gotten enough sleep. Making sure no one was waiting outside the portrait hole to get back in (since only a few people could pronounce James' ridiculously long password), she went downstairs quietly, determined to confront James about what had happened in the common room last night.  
  
With luck, she managed to get caught up in a large group of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw girls, and, completely encased, managed to slip to her seat next to James unnoticed. With an abrupt motion that couldn't and didn't fail to attract his attention, she pulled out her chair and sat down. Without waiting for him to mumble out a "Hi", she faced him squarely.  
  
"Why did you leave the common roon like that last night?"  
  
He started. "Like what?"  
  
"You know very well what I mean. You got all huffy and stormed out of the room. Why?"  
  
"I--I--I didn't-"  
  
"Yes, you did. Did you get mad about something I did?"  
  
"I didn't get mad."  
  
"Yes, you did. You're sitting right here till you answer me."  
  
Sirius interrupted. "If he really doesn't want to tell, he'll sit there right through classes. I'd look up some curses, if I were you--oops." James had thrown him a ferocious glare. "I mean, try persuading him nicely--oh, what's the use. James, better look up a really good Shield charm. Sorry, man." He pushed his chair back and ran out of the Great Hall as quickly as he could.  
  
James half-smiled, obviously amused, then turned back to his Charms homework.  
  
Trying to force a bit of conversation, Remus moved to Sirius' now-vacant seat. "Hey, James, when's the next Quidditch match? I heard you've been training a lot."  
  
Lily frowned. "Quidditch?"  
  
James took his eyes off of his homework. "Don't tell me you've never heard of Quidditch. Please don't tell me."  
  
"I haven't. It sounds like a balloon-blowing-up contest."  
  
James' eyes almost fell out. "You poor, deprived child. Here, let me explain."  
  
Remus rolled his eyes. "Poor child. Poor, poor child indeed. She'll be here till lunch, if I know James." And he left the hall, trying to shut out James' explanation of how exactly the Quaffle fit into your hand and the record of how many fouls had been made in a single game.  
  
Lily walked out onto the Quidditch field that evening with James, as the team had a practice that day. Several of the team members were already there, though she didn't know any of them. One, a tallish boy wih red hair, waved to them to come over.  
  
"So, James, brought your girlfriend to watch?"  
  
James blushed scarlet. "John, she's not my girlfriend. I--I just found out this morning at breakfast that she'd never heard of Quidditch before now, so--so I just thought I'd bring her to a practice."  
  
John gave him a Look, then turned to Lily. "So, did he bore you out of your mind all day telling you about Quidditch?"  
  
Lily shrugged. "It might have been more understandable if he'd actually explained the basic rules of Quidditch. He didn't even mention that this was played on broomsticks."  
  
The team stared at James, who went even redder. "Hey, I forgot she didn't know what this was about. And how did you know that this was played on broomsticks?" he challenged, whirling on Lily.  
  
She pointed to the broom in his hand. "I might have thought you were going to do a detention or something, but you said you were going to Quidditch practice."  
  
John looked puzzled. "Detention?"  
  
"Yeah." He looked even more puzzled. "Broom, sweep, floor...?"  
  
John shot a half-smile. "Oh, right. I knew that!" He saw his teammates not bothering to hide several sn iggers and quickly picked up his broom. "OK, time for practice, isn't it?" He shot into the air.  
  
Five other blurs followed him. James was still on the ground, throwing a scarlet robe on over his own. "Lily, you don't have to stand here. There're bleachers over there"--he pointed towards a clump of trees--"and I don't think we'll be that long."  
  
A girl with raven-black hair leaned down from her perch on her broomstick.  
  
"Yo, James, quit denying it. We'll make you divorce if you don't come up here right now!"  
  
James scowled at her. "Anya, shut up."  
  
He turned back to Lily. "See ya later." And he was off, kicking the ground hard. Lily went to the bleachers James had pointed out and sat down, smiling as she remembered the red on James' cheeks as he was accused of being her boyfriend.  
  
Lily was surprised at how fast time flew. The only clue she had to how late it was was the moon rising over the field. The team members noticed it, too, and, after John sent the Quaffle through the middle golden hoop, they landed on the dewy grass. Lily jumped right off of the bleachers and half- ran towards them. "Wow, guys, that was really good! I couldn't do an eighth of that if I tried my best!"  
  
Miranda, the raven-haired girl, slithered out of the scarlet robes. "This is your first time ever seeing a Quidditch match or practice?"  
  
Lily nodded. "I was raised with Muggles."  
  
Miranda nodded, understanding. "Oh. But do you like it? I mean, from what you saw today."  
  
"Oh, yes! I think you're wonderful!"  
  
John laughed. "Then I guess you'd better come out here more often. James never plays this well."  
  
James turned on him and pulled out his wand. "John, I told you before--shut it!"  
  
"All right, all right! Man, you can't even talk to him!" he added. "Won't let you lie about him, won't let you tell the truth--OW!"  
  
James was retrieving his broom from where it had been flung--at John's stomach.  
  
"So," Ashley, a brunette Chaser, added, "you've really never heard of Quidditch before now?"  
  
Lily sighed. "Really really.  
  
"Seriously? I don't know why James even took a second look at you--he'd normally never get close to anyone who'd never heard of Quidditch." She ducked a swipe from James' broom and sped, laughing, back to the castle.  
  
The rest of the team had by now gone inside. James turned to Lily. "I think we'd better go, too."  
  
"Oh, right." Lily nodded.  
  
They passed the time up to Gryffindor Tower talking about miscellaneous things, then, when they came to the hallway before the portrait hole, James stopped his remarks about the blond streak on the back of his head he and Remus had given Snape one day (he'd carefully avoided mentioning Sirius).  
  
"Listen, Lily, about what they said on the field earlier? I mean, about you and me?"  
  
Lily was determined not to blush as hard as he was. She shook her hair back from her face. "Yeah, what about it?"  
  
"Well, I thought that, well, maybe--" They had rounded the corner by now and were facing the portrait hole and a bunch of amused team members. "Go on, James, go on!" Miranda was sn iggering. "Why don't you continue?"  
  
James blushed again. "Why on earth are you guys still out here?" was his puzzled and rather annoyed answer.  
  
John raised his eyebrows. "Because Mr. Brilliant here made up a password no one else can remember, much less pronounce."  
  
James rolled his eyes. "Oh, right. Hippopotomonstrosequippedaliophobia." The portrait door swung open. As the team piled inside, Lily pulled James' sleeve.  
  
"What did you want to tell me?"  
  
He shrugged. "Nothing important. Forget it." 


	5. Clumsy mistakes can be deadlygood thing ...

Lily came down to breakfast the next morning with a large appetite, not having had any dinner the night before. She came into the Great Hall just in time to see James and Sirius magically pin a large banner with the words "Serverus and Sheila" and a border of pink roses with red rims about ten feet above Snape's head and see three-fourths of the Hall burst out laughing, including Professor Zimmermann and Professor Vector, the very young Arithmancy teacher.  
  
Lily slipped into her seat and was halfway through her bacon and eggs before Snape noticed his airy adornment. He blasted it into the ceiling, which repelled the smoking banner and caused the burning fragments to float onto the Slytherin's heavily laden table, into milk jugs and on top of porridge bowls.  
  
The Great Hall exploded with laughter while Snape sat with his wand still in his hand, looking rather stupid with a piece of ash draped around his head like a tiara (compliments of Mr. Potter). None of the Slytherins ate much breakfast that morning.  
  
James had a large smile on his face that morning in Charms, while Snape struggled to keep control of his wand. So, apparently, did Professor Zimmerman when her wand flew out of her hand, circled the room twice, and landed between Malfoy's shoulderblades, causing a large strip of cloth to be torn away from his robes, revealing a red mark somewhat like a heart on his back.  
  
She was new, just arrived that year, so she didn't immediately look towards Sirius and James, who were slapping high-fives in the back of the room.  
  
Malfoy had to be excused to get new robes, and Professor Zimmermanngave them a free day while she spent her time running her eyes over her wand, which she held inches away from her nose, to see what was wrong with it.  
  
Lily had been offered their schedule for the day and was scanning through it.  
  
"You've got first period Charms, I know that, but--You've got jinxes planned for all your teachers today? Look at this"--she ran her finger down the page--"Transfiguration: Vanishing Chair and Heel-Loss Charms. What the heck is a Heel-Loss Charm?"  
  
James smiled blissfully. "McGonagall wears high heels. I just want to see if their loss will make her fall or not. If not, we'll think of something else. Just the Vanishing Chair by itself isn't enough to disrupt a lesson."  
  
Lily raised an eyebrow. "You want to disrupt a lesson that badly?"  
  
He shrugged, grinning. "I know everything she's trying to teach us."  
  
Lily rolled her eyes. "Oh, really. Here." She had reached into her bookbag and pulled out the teddy bear Sirius had given her. "Turn this into a--a cat's good." James raised his eyebrows. "That's all?" He swished his wand once, muttered something under his breath, and almost immediately transformed it into a cat with a rather distorted smile. "Oh, I forgot." He touched the cat with his wand and immediately, under the wand's touch, it grew a satin pink bow around it neck.  
  
"Hey!" Sirius frowned. "You'd better be able to undo that!"  
  
"Why?"  
  
"I gave her that bear!"  
  
"You did?" The cat jumped off of the desk and headed straight out of the half-open door. "Oops."  
  
Sirius gave him a Look.  
  
Later that day, at lunch, to be precise, Lily found herself giggling at the account James, Remus, Sirius, and Peter gave of McGonagall's falling into the chalky blackboard after losing her chair, her dive into the first row of students after losing her heels, and the entanglement her robes had with a white Persian cat with a bow around its neck.  
  
At that, Sirius handed her her bear back, with an additional adornment. Over the white scarf, it had a broad pink satin bow. "Too pink for comfort," was Sirius' comment, "but James insisted on it."  
  
James jumped in. "So you'll have a memento of the only time McGonagall ever got her robes messed up. Though, with us around, it won't be the last..."  
  
"I doubt it will be, at that." Lily dunked her bread in her soup. "I've got flying lessons next--since our teacher got sick, we haven't had a lesson yet."  
  
Sirius nodded. "Oh, right, I heard about that. James was griping earlier, how none of the first years had been taught to fly, because we REALLY need a new Beater. Joseph's a nice guy, but he's really bad."  
  
Lily swallowed her piece of bread. "Why'd you pick him then?"  
  
James sighed. "He was the best we could find."  
  
John sat down next to Amanda. "I offered to play both positions, but McGonagall had something against that."  
  
Remus snorted. "John, she just doesn't want us to lose the House Cup!"  
  
"What, you think I'd make us lose?"  
  
Lily nodded. "Even I can answer that. How're you going to throw and catch the Quaffle with both hands on the bat?"  
  
"Oh." Peter and James snigge red. "Good point."  
  
Remus changed the subject, pointing over to the Slytherin table. "Hey, Lily, check out Sirius and James' latest work of art! He hasn't noticed it yet."  
  
Lily took a quick peek ,then choked into her pumpkin juice. Snape was sitting with his back to the Gryffindors, and fastened onto the back of his robes was, magnified several times, the receipt of his rose purchases in Fraeden Square, plus a moving picture of Snape handing them to Sheila, his usually pasty white face a sort of gray in the black-and-white photo.  
  
"How'd you take that picture?"  
  
Remus laughed. "They didn't. It's kinda artificial. But Sheila helped--a lot!"  
  
Lily grinned. "How?"  
  
James smiled, eyes on dessert. "Sheila has a useful habit of explaining just where a person was standing and where they where and how they looked when they said this and where their hands were...all kinds of useful things." He perked up, as if struck with sudden information. "Hey, Sirius, any posts about Hogsmeade weekends?"  
  
Before Sirius could answer, Lily had interrupted. "Hog--what?"  
  
James waved her off. "It's the only all-wizard village in Britain. Any news, Sirius?"  
  
"Nah. Sirius shook his head. "I even got into the teacher's lounge, but they haven't posted anything yet."  
  
"Darn. We're running out of firecrackers, and you know what we need then for." James said, nodding at Sirius.  
  
"What for?" Lily asked, curious.  
  
James shook his head. "Sorry, can't tell you. Anyway, you'll find out soon." He looked at his watch. "Oops, gotta go. See you people at dinner!"  
  
"Oy!" Remus called after him. "We've got out next two subjects together!"  
  
"Like I said, see you at dinner!" James turned out of the Great Hall and vanished from sight.  
  
Remus shrugged. "I guess Varla and Metphis'll be missing out on their jinxes. And I'd really looked forward to those; actually, I've been counting on them, since I haven't done my homework for either of them. Darn!"  
  
Lily climbed through the portrait hole and into the common room that evening, just before dinner, to put her books away. About five older kids were clustered around a notice on the wall, but Lily didn't bother to read it. She dragged her books upstairs, a bit tired, as the flying lesson hadn't gone so well. Inside her dormitory, she found Amanda lying on her bed, sleeping. Lily shook her shoulder. "Amanda, wake up! It's almost dinner time."  
  
The sleeping girl started, sat up in bed, and shook her hair back. "W-what? What time is it?"  
  
Lily smiled. "Six-thirty. C'mon, come down to dinner. How long have you been asleep, anyway?"  
  
Amanda yawned. "Not that long, actually. I think only fifteen minutes."  
  
Pulling her off of the bed, Lily grinned. "Well, come down to dinner, then! I'm starving!"  
  
They went down to the Great Hall together. Both of the shot a quick look at Snape as they entered, but,for once, both he and Malfoy were prank-free. Slightly disappointed, Lily and Amanda slid into their seats. James wasn't there yet, but the minute the plates were filled, he ran to his chair, panting a bit.  
  
"I got them, Sirius." was all the explanation he gave for being late, which wasn't much of an explanation. "Oh, hi, Lily." He turned back to Sirius. "We'll need to work on the word formation, if we want this ready by Saturday."  
  
Lily didn't ask. She had a feeling James wouldn't answer or brush her off, and she wasn't in the mood for that right now. Reaching over the table for a biscuit, her robe slipped back from her wrist, revealing an ugly bruise.  
  
Sirius' eyes widened. "Lily! How on earth did that happen?"  
  
Lily grimaced. "Flying lessons. I'm not good at all."  
  
James looked a bit disappointed at that news, but reached over and took her hand, looking at the bruise. "What exactly happened?"  
  
"Oh..." Lily shrugged. "Nothing worth hearing about. I got knocked off my broom, then got caught between two other brooms." She pointed to her wrist. "That's how I got this. But it's all right, it's not that bad." she said, trying to regain her hand out of James' grasp.  
  
He frowned, not letting go. "You really should go to Miss Hilton. I'm not much of an expert on injuries, but I still think this might not be just a bruise."  
  
Lily succeeded in pulling her hand away. "I'm all right, there's no need for the fuss! It's just a bruise."  
  
"Hm!" James said, clearly not convinced. "Hey, we have our first Quidditch match on Saturday! I forgot, we have training tonight. Lily, want to come?"  
  
She shook her head. "Sorry, I can't. I have a Defense Against the Dark Arts essay to finish. I wish I could." she added.  
  
James nodded, obviously disappointed. "Oh, yeah, right, I think you told me something about that yesterday. No big deal." But he didn't look as if he really meant it.  
  
The Quidditch match would be in two hours, and Lily was looking forward to it, as was the rest of the school. Most of the Gryffindors had bought red robes or were dressed in red Muggle clothing. Lily felt a bit left out, since she had never bought any red clothing, as it clashed terribly with her hair. She ended up borrowing a gold Muggle dress from Eva, which had a scarlet trim around the edges, sleeves, and neckline. It was a bit fancy, but she decided it would be the best she could do. She was planning to wear a jacket anyway, so the gold wouldn't flash too much. Picking out a gold ribbon to tie her hair back with and slipping into a long black duster, she ran downstairs to the common room.  
  
James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter were already there, whispering by the fire.  
  
Lily sat down on the carpet, next to Remus and Sirius. They stopped their whispering abruptly to greet her.  
  
"Lily! Ready for the match?"  
  
"I'd better be, after all the work you guys have put into practicing. I can't wait!"  
  
"Yeah, this'll be good. Especially if Gryffindor wins--right, James?" Sirius shot a grin at James, who was checking his sleeve for his wand. He nodded, and Remus suddenly seemed anxious. "James, if you get cold feet and tell anyone, even her"--he jerked his thumb towards Lily--"I--"  
  
James rolled his eyes. "Calm down, you know I won't. She's a girl, she'd tell everyone. It's in their nature."  
  
Lily's forehead cleared. "Tell what?"  
  
Sirius glared at James. "Not one word, James, not one word!"  
  
James shrugged. "You'll find out."  
  
"Please?"  
  
"I'll say this much. Don't worry," he added as the other three reached for their wands, "it's nothing dangerous." He turned back to Lily. "It involves sparks."  
  
Lily's eager face fell. "Wow, what wonerful news. I figured as much myself."  
  
"What?" James jumped up. "When?"  
  
"You three have to be a bit more secretive if you want anything to stay hidden. What spark formation did you have to work on?"  
  
Sirius, Peter, and Remus laughed at James' dumbstruck face. "Well, James, even if she's no good at Quidditch, she's still smart! I'd say that's a pretty good bargain."  
  
There was a loud ring in the common room, followed by Professor McGonagall's voice. "All Quidditch spectators, please come to the field now!" There was a mad rush for the portrait hole.  
  
The heat hit Lily when she first walked outside. "Wow! Where did that come from?" she asked Sirius, who was walking next to her.  
  
He shrugged. "It's been like this all day. You mean you haven't noticed?"  
  
"I haven't been outside yet. This is too hot for me!" Lily unbuttoned the black duster and slid her arms out of the sleeves. Right beside her, Sirius threw up his arms to cover his eyes.  
  
"What, do I look that bad?"  
  
He shook his head, blinking. "No, you look great! I'm seeing spots, though."  
  
Lily was a bit puzzled. "Why?"  
  
He looked pointedly at her dress. Lily looked down and the glare hit her eyes. "Oh. Ow!" She was blinking now, too.  
  
By now Peter had caught up with them. "Why'd you wear that? Whom are you getting all fancy for; it isn't James, is it?"  
  
She stared at Peter. "No! Of course not! I didn't have anything red, so Eva let me wear this."  
  
He looked at her with a "yeah, right!" on his face.  
  
"Really, you can go ask her!"  
  
"All right, all right. Just--just put that black thing on till the sun goes away."  
  
Lily glared at him and he shrunk back, cowering a bit. "You wimpy rat." Lily whirled around and climbed up the bleachers.  
  
Below them, the teams met; the captains shook hands. High up in the stands with the teachers, a Ravenclaw fifth year was doing the commentating.  
  
"And Ravenclaw and Gryffindor's captains shake hands; Patil and Venn, and...they're off! The Quaffle goes to Miranda Shaw of Gryffindor, she ducks a Bludger--nicely done there, Gates"--there were several cheers from the Ravenclaw end and many boos from Gryffindor--"--anyway, Shaw ducks Ravenclaw Chasers Park and Newby, heads for the goals--come on there, Patton, save--oh no--ten points to Gryffindor..."  
  
Here he was interrupted with violent cheers form the Gryffindor end and several halfhearted sighs from Ravenclaw. "And the Quaffle goes to Ashley Thomas of Gryffindor, ducks that brilliant Bludger again, oh, and yes! Ravenclaw in possession, there's Park heading for the goals--She scores! Ten points to Ravenclaw!"  
  
The game went on for another three hours. At about five, Lily was exhausted from being in the sun so long and jumping up with applause every time a Gryffindor scored a goal. The score was tied at ninety to ninety, and it seemed like the game would never end. Lily pulled Sirius' sleeve.  
  
"How long do you think the match will last?"  
  
He shrugged. "The record's two months, seventeen days. ALL RIGHT, GO MIRANDA!"  
  
Miranda had just scored, making the score one hundred to ninety for Gryffindor and leaving Lily openmouthed. "Two months, seventeen days? If I can last this hour, I'll be glad."  
  
Several other people seemed to feel the same way, too. Professor Zimmermann was snoozing against Professor McGonagall's shoulder, and half of the school was wilting in the heat, which had increased as much as it was able.  
  
"Ravenclaw in possession, Newby heading for the goals--wait--was that the Snitch?"  
  
James had shot upwards, towards the teacher's stands. All of the school immediately snapped to attention, and even Newby stopped in midair, losing the Quaffle as Miranda snatched it and scored a Gryffindor goal, but there were only a few cheers from the Gryffindor end as both Seekers were speeding toward the Snitch. Both hands were outstretched, though at the last moment, a Bludger, very well aimed by John, came flying at Venn, the Ravenclaw Seeker, causing him to turn aside sharply. That was all James needed. He pulled away from the teacher's tent, a tiny golden ball with fluttering wings grasped tightly in his hand. The stadium erupted.  
  
Lily saw Sirius pull out his wand and mutter something, and immediately, the stadium literally erupted. Firecrackers blew out of the ground and exploded in the sky, which was now a murky twilight. Red and gold sparks flew out of the stands, flying around the stadium, and then combined in the middle, about seventy feet off the ground, to form a blazing fountain of light. Several hundred sparks spilled over the sides, combining, for everyone to see, the words: "Gryffindor Wins!" And underneath it, in smaller letters: "Not a surprise, really, was it?"  
  
The Ravenclaws were too surprised and excited to boo at that last message, as everyone poured down to the field to congratulate the teams.  
  
The Gryffindor team was swamped. Lily, standing a bit farther in the background, saw Miranda rise out of the heap, choking, then get dragged back down again. When the team was finally able to breathe again, John picked himself up, put out a spark that had landed on his robes, and shot a noise like a cannon from his wand into the air.  
  
"ATTENTION PLEASE ALL GRYFFINDORS!" He cleared his throat, under the attention of about seven hundred people. "We have some people here to thank for our amazing display of--of--of sparks!" He pulled James to his feet, managing to put out another fiery spark at the same time. "James, stand up! Hey, Sirius, back there, you too! Come forth all noble--all noble-- Inventors!" James and Sirius were hauled to the shoulders of several Gryffindors heading towards the castle. "Give them a round hand!"  
  
Lily did so, and her palms were raw by the time they reached the portrait hole. At the Fat Lady, though, James and Sirius jumped down from their human litters. "Gryffindors, can I speak for just a moment?" They all fell silent. "Thank you." James continued. "We have something else waiting for you inside. Please do not swamp the butterbeer! Thank you. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliaophobia!" The portrait swung open to reveal a common room with food dripping from every table. Stacked up against the wall near the fire were mounds and pyramids of bottles. Lily's eyes opened wide. What on earth and how...? In front of the food stacked on the tables Remus and Peter were standing. "Welcome to the Gryffindor team's private and personal party! Dig in!"  
  
The food lasted through the night. Finally, near the end, about two o'clock, Lily managed to speak to her friends.  
  
"Congratulations. It did have to do with sparks!"  
  
James grinned. "I know. Have some Fudge Flies!" He threw her a packet of what looked like pieces of thread dipped in fudge.  
  
"These aren't real flies, are they?"  
  
"Nah. But they do look reamarkably like, don't they?"  
  
"They do. Will you be offended if I give them back?"  
  
James shrugged. "Not at all. Hand 'em over." He tore open the packet. "These aren't that bad. Though they could lose that nasty blood flavor--I'm joking--joking." he added.  
  
The next morning, all the Gryffindors stayed in bed until about twelve; the latest coming down around three. The whole common room was filled with yawning people who had flopped down in poufs and chairs, some on the floor. No one had bothered to get dressed to go down to lunch, as they still had lots of candy and butterbeer from last night's party, and even Eva and Vanessa, usually so picky about their apppearance, tramped down the girls' staircase in dressing gowns and unbrushed hair tied in kerchiefs.  
  
Lily had spent the afternoon with James and Sirius, who were engaged in trying to teach her the latest jinx James had invented, a sort of charm that repelled Malfoy's permanent vomit-breath hex. She still wasn't quite sure on how to pronounce the word, so she ended up with a weak and wobbly sort of shield that was quickly vaporized by Sirius' well-aimed Tickling Charm. For the seventeenth time that day, Lily sank to the floor, wheezing and gasping for breath. Sirius let her lie for a while, then, after hearing her threats of dyeing his hair orange while he slept, removed it without hesitation.  
  
"Sirius, I'm going to kill you and have fun doing it. Come here!" She pointed her wand at his retreating figure. "Fine then. Chicken!" Lily sank down onto a red velvet pouf. "James, this isn't working. I've tried so many times and it's still pretty pathetic."  
  
"Yeah, I know. The main reason it isn't working is that you're not concentrating hard enough."  
  
She glared. "How am I supposed to concentrate if I'm being threatened by everlasting fingers poking me in my sides? I'll try again. But use a different jinx on me, all right?"  
  
James scowled. "Girls. All right, go ahead."  
  
Lily took a deep breath. "Phew. Breathe in...breathe out." She raised her wand. "Fetronus!" This time, she could see a smoky kind of glass rise in front of her. Lily looked over at James, who nodded and raised his wand.  
  
"Tenrash Pfefferolus!" A blast of red light issued from his wand and blew right through her shield, hitting her in the mouth and causing her to scream. "James, if I ever get hold of you, I'll--" She couldn't finish her sentence, as she had made a mad dash for the butterbeer.  
  
Remus looked up from his book. "What'd you do to the poor girl? That old Pepper Breath one?"  
  
James shook his head ,grinning widely. "Something new. I'm hitting Malfoy with it first chance I get. I haven't figured out a name for it yet, but it causes a semi-permanent sensation like you've just swallowed a jar of flaming hot salsa. There she comes. Remus, come here!" He had pulled his friend out of his armchair and used him as a block against the curses issuing from Lily's wand. "Why did we ever teach her those things?" James bellowed in Remus' ear. Remus didn't answer as Lily hit him with the second Full-Body Bind in a row. His head dropped back onto his shoulder, leaving James' head free as a target. Lily ran her fingers along her wand, grinning evilly, then started chasing James all through the corridors outside, hitting several suits of armor accidentally and causing a sort of blockade at one corner, where a statue and a painting had fallen on top of each other and blocked the corridor.  
  
Lily rounded a corner, knocking over a spear from an old suit of armor, and found herself in one of the dungeons underground. But this one was different from Snape's; she'd never set eyes inside this place before.  
  
It apparently hadn't been used for quite some time; the walls were greenish and slimy, while the few chairs in the room that had obviously been rather nice; covered with blue or black velvet, were now completely useless. Someone or something had clawed the furniture to bits, leaving broken and splintery pieces of wood all over the floor. The backs were broken off of one chair, and about three mahogany table legs were lying around, devoid of the table top.  
  
Lily gasped. She moved forward into the dungeon, a bit tentatively. Recalling the second spell Professor Zimmermann had taught them, she held up her wand.  
  
"Lumos!", she whispered, looking around for James. Behind her, the door slammed, making her jump. "Who's there?" No one answered.  
  
Sticking from the ceiling was the ring of a trapdoor, and, hoping this might have been where James had gone, Lily pulled on it.  
  
It gave way easily, and, to her surprise, all she saw was muck, mud, algae, and rotten pieces of wood that had ben pushed down to form a sort of floor to the place above. Lily realized that there was no way on earth anyone could be up there, but, next instant, her thoughts were distracted by a trickling drip, drip echoing through the dungeon, coming from a hole in the ceiling, right in front of her. Eyes wide, Lily realized she had to be under the lake. She rushed to the door; tearing frantically at the handle, all the while thinking that the ceiling might collapse, letting in the lake. The door wouldn't open.  
  
"Help!" Lily repeated over and over again, hoping someone might hear her. "Someone, help!" She tried to remember the spell to unlock doors that Professor McGonagall had taught then just last week, but her mind was like a freshly-wiped slate.  
  
She banged on the door again, having gazed back at the water and, finding that the hole had expanded to the width of her little finger, began to pound on the door with one of the table legs. But the door was of stone, and she was far under the floors of the often-traveled corridors.  
  
Lily sat down, trying her best to think of the charm and to ignore the growing puddle in the corner.  
  
"All right, I was raised among Muggles. I can think of something without my wand. Really, I can!" she added, almost as if she were giving herself disbelieving looks and snig gering at herself. "Never mind, I can't. I've just successfully succeeded in confusing myself. Congratulations, Lily." She groaned and leaned back against the stone door, catching sight of a chair leg.  
  
"That's it!" She jumped up, picked up the rotting piece of wood, and raced towards the broken trapdoor. Standing on her tiptoes and as many chairs as she could pile up, she managed to stick the piece of wood into the gap. Dusting off her hands, she smiled.  
  
"There!--no--OUCH!" The pile of chairs she had been standing on collapsed under her weight. Lily fell towards the ground, and, trying to stop her fall, grabbed hold of the closest thing she could find--in this case, the chair leg. It came out of the ceiling and she landed on the floor, with a considerable amount of lake water soaking her robes.  
  
She managed to look up at the damage she had done. Lily closed her eyes, not even bothering to move away from the small waterfall pouring onto her lap.  
  
When the water was up to her ankles, Lily regained enough presence on mind to crawl back to the door, the part of the dungeon that was the most elevated. Here, only an inch of muck swirled around her shoes and robes.  
  
"This is hopeless." was her only thought as she stood back up and started to pound on the doors again.  
  
"Hello? Can somebody hear me, please, hello?" In a sort of rage, she started to kick at the door. Her wand was useless, as she had only learned a few random jinxes here and there. "Is someone there, I need help!"  
  
She whirled back around to hear a cracking noise. Several stones had fallen from the ceiling and with them a small flood. "Oh, why do these doors have to be so heavy?" she wondered as she pounded the stone, already in waist- high water. Sitting down was impossible.  
  
"Someone, help me!" Lily started to reel with fright. Hoping against hope that this would work, she pointed her wand at a chink in the door. "Tenrash Pfefferolus!" The orange light that issued from her wand burned a hole through the chinks about as large as twice the width of her wand. Lily took a deep breath, trying to calm her shaking body. She stuck her wand through the gap and sent as many red sparks as she could manage down the corridor.  
  
"If no one sees these, I don't know what I'll do." She closed her eyes, then, as if struck with a sudden maniacy, started to curse the stones in the door.  
  
Upstairs, the students were getting up from dinner in the Great Hall. Meandering along a corridor to his common room, one student caught sight of several red sparks flowing down the corridor. He followed them, wondering. Many staircases later, he found himself far under the school's regular corridors. He stopped, having heard someone scream. The scream was repeated, and the voice sounded somewhat familiar. He moved quickly down a corridor.  
  
Inside the dungeon, Lily was desperate. The water was chest-high, and she had made close to no impact on the dungeon's door.  
  
"Help, someone, please!" she shouted as a last-ditch effort, as she thought she heard something outside.  
  
The water was rising faster now, and she leaned against the door in silent acceptance. The next moment, there was no door, and she was looking into the dark eyes of someone she thought she knew. The last thing she remembered was the bang of the door as he closed it again, preventing the water from rushing out.  
  
Lily found herself lying down somewhere. Groggily, she opened her eyes. The environment was familiar, but a bit unexpected. The white walls and sheets of the hospital wing surrounded her, along with several worried faces. Lily shook her head and pushed herself up.  
  
Amanda was the first to react. "Lily!" She had thrown herself on the bed, hugging her friend around the neck. "We were so scared that you were-you were-oh, Lily!" Exaggerating a choking sound, Lily managed to breathe again.  
  
"Why am I here?" she asked, massaging her neck a bit. Her eyes traveled to her visitors, most of them bent over her bed--Peter, Sirius, James, Remus, Amanda, Eva, Vanessa, and, surprisingly enough, Serverus Snape. It was Snape her eyes fastened on, who was seated in a chair near the door. "What're you doing here?" was her confused question.  
  
Miss Hilton bustled over. "Oh, good, you're awake. The headmaster will be in in just a moment. Drink this." She pushed a cup of nasty-smelling liquid under Lily's nose. Lily frowned, but managed to gulp it down without spitting the slimy mixture back out. "What happened?" she asked as soon as she was able.  
  
Amanda, Sirius, and James sat down on the bed. Amanda was the first to speak. "I still don't know most of what happened, but you got carried back from the dungeons, and then there was this news of a flood down there, and you've been lying here for two days!"  
  
Lily's mouth dropped. "Two--two days?  
  
James nodded. "Professor Dumbledore was in here along with half of Gryffindor Tower and a bunch of Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. Of course, he came, too (he nodded towards Snape), though why, I don't know, and we've been sitting here since Miss Hilton let us in."  
  
"Yeah," Sirius grimaced, "at about twelve."  
  
Lily put the smoking cup on the nightstand. "What time is it now?"  
  
Eva pushed back the sleeve of her robe. "Five p.m."  
  
Lily yawned and dropped back onto the pillows. "I don't really know what happened, besides that I was in this dungeon, and then the door slammed shut, and the lake water started to come in, and I couldn't get out."  
  
James started. "You--you were locked in a dungeon downstairs?"  
  
"Yeah." Lily nodded. "I couldn't open the door. Why?"  
  
He gulped. "Never mind. I'll tell you later."  
  
The door creaked and a figure in dark blue robes entered. All of the visitors stood up and moved back from the bed, and the headmaster moved toward s Lily.  
  
"I shall not require any explanations tonight. Miss Hilton does not want you to be moved back to your dormitory until tomorrow." He reached inside his robes and pulled out something golden, holding it close to Lily's eyes. "Have you ever seen this before?"  
  
Lily struggled to keep her eyes focused. It was a thinly woven gold necklace, ending in a midnight blue pendant. "No, sir."  
  
Dumbledore nodded slowly. "I will leave you to your friends. On second thought," he added, "I will require all of you to leave us here for a moment. Serverus, you stay here, please." he requested as Lily's friends trooped out, a bit reluctantly.  
  
The door closed with a soft bump, and Dumbledore turned back to Lily and Snape. "Serverus, you, I think, will be the best one to tell her about her accident. Good night to you both." He left, closing the door behind him.  
  
Lily scanned Snape's hands tentatively for a wand. 


	6. A dangerous discovery

"About what accident?" Lily asked Snape, still a bit tense.  
  
"Don't you remember what happened down in the dungeons."  
  
Lily frowned. "That accident? I mean, was that an accident?"  
  
Snape shrugged, his frown lessening. "From Dumbledore's point of view it was. I don't think James meant for you to be drowned or to--"  
  
"Whoa! Time out! James meant for that to happen?"  
  
Snape looked a bit impatient. "I just said I didn't think he did it on purpose. But he did lock you in there."  
  
Lily held her ears shut. "He did what?"  
  
"Locked you in the dungeons. But that is not what I'm being called upon to tell you." Lily uncovered her ears. "What, then?"  
  
Snape handed her a glass of water. "Have you ever heard of elf-nymphs?"  
  
She frowned. "What do you take me for, an idiot? Of course I have."  
  
"Sorry." Snape held up his hands. "There are many idiots in the world." He let his hands sink. "They are the best smiths in the world. And this--" He pulled out the necklace Dumbledore had held a moment before. "This is some of their workmanship. It has several unusual powers, among them the gift of not aging." Snape sounded like a professor and a textbook combined. "I've done lots of studying on this, which happens to be one of the most powerful things they have made."  
  
Lily frowned. "How did it come here?"  
  
Snape regained his usual scowl. "Out in the east, there has been a rumor of a powerful wizard. Among other goals, he seeks to wipe out all of the Muggles and gain immortality. This--well, this necklace would help him immensely."  
  
Lily was puzzled. "And what does all this have to do with me?"  
  
Snape looked astounded. "You mean you don't know?"  
  
"Don't know what?"  
  
"When I dragged you out of that dungeon, this was in your hand." Lily spilled her water all over her lap. "You unlocked that door? I thought it was Sirius!"  
  
Snape scowled. "That's not a compliment."  
  
Lily tried to clean the water up. "I don't give compliments. I thought it was Sirius."  
  
Snape sighed. "If I can be mistaken for him, then I need to dye my hair orange."  
  
Lily smirked. "Wash it, too, while you're at it."  
  
Snape stood up. "I don't know why I even bothered. I really should have left you down in that dungeon." With which parting remark he left the hospital wing, slamming the door loudly.  
  
Lily raised her eyebrows. "Well, he does need to wash his hair." She sighed loudly, feeling the water soak her nightgown.  
  
Lily caught a nasty cold, and Miss Hilton waited two days before releasing her from the hospital wing. Lily was thankful to leave, as it got very lonely when she had no visitors. There had been no other patients, and the only thing Lily could do when she was alone was sleep. Miss Hilton had asked Eva and Amanda to escort her to Gryffindor Tower, as Lily's legs were a bit shaky from spending all that time in bed. The rest of the Gryffindors were at dinner when they climbed through the portrait hole.  
  
Amanda went first. "Do you want to go straight up to bed? Because I know they'll all want to know what happened, and when you're in the dormitory, at least I think the boys won't come up."  
  
Lily laughed. "What, are you crazy? The last thing I need right now is bed rest."  
  
Eva closed the Fat Lady. "Well, I asked McGonagall, and she refused to let you out of homework. I got everything down for you, if you want to start right now."  
  
Lily groaned. "I totally forgot about homework. Yeah, I guess I'd better."  
  
Halfway through the long essay on the different uses of a bezoar for the Potions master, Professor Groves, the common room door opened. Amanda started to pack up their things as quickly as possible as a few seventh years drifted in, and by the time the noisy, chattering crowd had filled the common room, Amanda, Eva, and Lily had successfully escaped to their dormitory.Lily finished the essay as fast as she could, hiding in her four- poster. Amanda and Eva had also climbed onto her bed and were doing some Charms homework.  
  
Lily finally put down her roll of parchment and sighed. "Whew! Glad I'm done with that!" She flopped back onto her pillow and ruffled her hair. Amanda rolled her eyes. "You'd better be glad that was the only essay we had to do this week. Our Herbology teacher, that Cauldwell, did a lot of practical lessons. One thing we did in his class was learn how to revive wilting plants. Watch." She pulled open the bed hangings and went to her trunk, on top of which there was a tiny wilting flower. "I pinched this from Greenhouse One."  
  
She placed the flower on the sheets and pulled out her wand. "Revivisco!" The flower, which had been a messy brown, quickly transformed into an orange blossom with thick, green leaves. It didn't stop there, though. The orange petals started to swell up and soon resembled tiny balloons. They refused to stop increasing in size, and pretty soon, the blossom took up a foot of space at the end of Lily's bed.  
  
They stared at Amanda, who half-grinned. "Oops!"  
  
Lily rolled her eyes and jumped off the bed.  
  
Eva leaned out of the curtains. "Now where are you going?"  
  
Lily had dashed over to her trunk. "Needle." She pulled one out of an embroidered hanging she was working on and ran back to the flower. "I don't know if this will work, but I sure hope so. She took the flower off the bed and held it outside the dormitory, just in case the flower petals contained something gross. Holding her breath, she stabbed at the orange mass with the point.  
  
There was the sound of an explosion. A sort of sweet-smelling nectar fell out of the flower and fell onto the grounds. Lily covered her ears, and in doing so, let go the flower. It fell down onto the lawns, where the rest of it exploded noisily.  
  
Eva sat on the bed, her palms clamped over her ears. "Amanda, you big trouble."  
  
"I am not! I was just practicing for Professor Cauldwell!"  
  
Lily pointed towards the door of the dormitory, which was filled with gaping Gryffindors. "You big trouble."  
  
The next morning at breakfast, Remus was missing. No one seemed to know where he had gone, not even James or Sirius. He hadn't told them anything, but Sirius told Lily that he usually left once a month and came back with odd excuses. "I mean, you can have only so many dead aunts."  
  
When Lily was walking along the corridor to Charms, Snape caught up with her. "Lily! Wait a minute."  
  
Lily whirled around. "Sirius--oh, never mind, it's you. What do you want?"  
  
Snape frowned. "Dumbledore told me you should have this for the time being." He dropped the elf-nymph necklace in her bag and headed inside the Charms classroom.  
  
That night, Lily sat on the window seat to read a letter from her mother. The full moon was shining on the page, so she didn't need a light.  
  
Dear Lily,  
  
I got your last letter. You didn't tell me whether you're coming home for Christmas or not. I hope you do and I hope you don't, as Petunia will go through the roof if she has to take the plants out of you room.  
  
I suppose your father told you about my potion mishaps? Well, we finally got the smoke out of the house, and Petunia has moved back in. Nothing is going on around here,--oh yes, your father wants a description of the Halloween decorations. He heard they're very good. If you can, send a picture. Your father sends his love, although he doesn't want to admit it, and so do I.  
  
Love, Mom  
  
Lily smiled and folded her letter back up. She reached over to her owl and chucked her gently between the ears. Alisande nipped her gently on the finger, then took off for the Owlery. Lily looked after her until she vanished in the hooting tower.  
  
She smiled and slipped down from the window seat, then heard something to make her freeze on the spot. It sounded like two women screaming for help.  
  
Lily ran back to the window, but could see nothing. The screams weren't repeated, and, finally, Lily had to force herself to go to sleep, first making sure to draw the curtains. Preview Zone  
  
The next morning at breakfast, Profesor McGonagall was missing, and Dumbledore was calling for attention.  
  
"If I may have you attention, please! Thank you." Lily slipped into her seat as the Great Hall fell silent. "I have several announcements to make. One is that our Professor McGonagall and Miss Hilton have been forced to leave, due to pressing circu mstances." He stopped while the Great Hall buzzed confusedly. "But, on the other hand, we have two new teachers to take their places." He gestured towards a witch rather like the old Professor McGonagall, though she didn't have the graying hairs in her black bun. "Minerva, stand up, please." She rose to applause from the school, then sat down quickly. "Professor McGonagall is your new Head of Gryffindor House, as well as your Transfiguration teacher." He looked down at a rather plump witch on his other side. "This is Madam Pomfrey, your new hospital wing nurse. I assure you we are lucky to have found her." Madam Pomfrey stood up to more applause, then sat back down. Dumbledore did not explain further. "Now, I think I have interrupted your breakfast long enough. Dig in!"  
  
Remus showed back up in Charms, with black rings around his eyes. Lily didn't ask where he had been, since he looked dead on his feet. He didn't speak at all that day, and vanished around lunchtime, returning in an hour with an explanation that he had been to see Professor Dumbledore.  
  
In Transfiguration, it turned out that Professor McGonagall was the daughter of their former teacher. She was a bit stricter with her class, but she wasn't a bad teacher, along with being an Animagus. Later, Lily learned that she had assigned two days' worth of detention to Peter, who had accidentally made her erasers start to bang together and give off clouds of dust.  
  
At dinner, James and Peter arrived a bit disappointed. They had sneaked into the hospital wing, trying to find out from Madam Pomfrey why she and Professor McGonagall's daughter had been called in, but Madam Pomfrey, they reported, was a 'twitchy old nut'. She had refused to tell them anything and had threatened to call the headmaster. The Halloween feast was that evening. According to James, Sirius, and Remus, who had sneaked past the magical barriers set in front of the doors, the Great Hall was decorated with all of the trimmings any student could ever have dreamed up, including several thousand live bats fluttering about the elevated candles.  
  
The banners draped around the Great Hall were surrounded with black and orange trimmings, and the gamekeeper, Hagrid, had cultivated fourteen pumpkins in the shape of bats, which were placed at each end of the House and teachers' tables and the middle of the House tables.  
  
No one was able to work in the common room, on account of the constant explosions of firecrackers, which were undergoing experiments to get back at the Slytherins.  
  
The Halloween feast was marvellous, and Dumbledore had the school stand up and applaud the kitchens. Lily noticed that Malfoy and Snape stayed seated. Some of the food had been really imaginative, including a large cake on a platform in the middle of the Great Hall that was a replica of Hogwarts, covered with different shades of black and orange icing. Going back up to the dormitories after the feast, the school was almost too stuffed to move. Professor Zimmermann had performed the Hover charm on several students who refused to budge from the tables. Lily almost joined them, but after one of the bats got into a candle and had a fatal accident involving smoked bat, she, Eva, and Amanda, having had bat remains fall on their plates, desisted from eating any more. They had left the Great Hall early, wanting to avoid the crowds.  
  
Up in Gryffindor Tower, Eva had gone to sleep, while down in the common room, Amanda and Lily were touching up the firecrackers. None of the Slytherins had been attacked, as the experimenters had not done so well and were saving their firecrackers for when they were really harmful, and the piles of firecrackers were strewn about down in the common room.  
  
Lily was having especial fun with a Goldfish Charmed firecracker, which was the spell she had been practicing with Remus. So far, she had added an automatic fish tank in the shape of a crystal ball under the victim, bubbles that spouted "Gryffindor for the Cup!" in red and gold, and fins made of long, flowing tiger lilies. She had duplicated it five times, and was adding an Expurgo Capillatus charm to a firecracker especially designed for Snape; this one would temporarily clean his hair and let it grow a few inches, just so it touched his elbows.  
  
Malfoy had a cracker designated for him, too, and Amanda was touching up the Congestus Acredula Charm, one that James had invented and that caused several birds to come out of the victim's ears, cheeping at him to clean his ears out. It was supposed to be set off every time Malfoy scratched his nose, spelled with a Never-Ending Itch hex.  
  
The whole school was drowsy and sluggish the next morning, unfortunately being a Monday. They were pleasantly awakened, though, by two Slytherins sitting on Lily's goldfish firecrackers and swimming around anxiously in their enlarged crystal glass. James improved on them a bit by enlarging the containers and the fish and causing them to hover over the student body. They hung there for about five minutes before Profesor McGonagall turned them back and gave James detention. This sort of crushed Lily's hope that James would explain to her that evening about the locked dungeon door, which he'd been a bit close about. Remus was looking tired again, having vanished and reappeared again three days before Halloween. He wouldn't answer any questions about where he had been, telling them to mind their own business.  
  
Two days later, Lily managed to corner James in the common roon, just before he went upstairs to his dormitory.  
  
"Hey--in the hospital wing you were going to tell me something about that locked dungeon, then you said you'd tell me later and you never got around to it."  
  
James flinched a bit. "I know--hey, is there anywhere we can sit down? Somewhere quiet, I mean." he added as Lily gestured towards the common room.  
  
She looked at him curiously. "Sure--I've got a letter I want to send to my mom. We can go to the Owlery."  
  
In a few minutes, they were heading up to the messenger-filled tower with a thick letter that included the Halloween feast pictures for Lily's father. Lily cleared her throat. "So, what did you want to say?"  
  
James looked a bit nervous. "See, I don't know if Snape told you, but--I locked you in there."  
  
Lily nodded, her face a bit hard. "He told me. What else? I mean, why?"  
  
James tripped on a step, going a bit red. "See, I doubt, I mean, I know he didn't tell you this, but I didn't know you were in there. I've got a good reason for closing that door, though..." He trailed off, then picked up his sentence at catching Lily's raised eyebrow and set mouth. "We had a rowdy crowd of ghosts in the castle my first year here. Actually, it was only about the first month, and they took over out former Potions dungeon. We had to move out, and the teachers told up to keep out at all times, since they were--well, very rough. We kept the door shut, and I saw the door open, and I didn't think for a minute you'd gone in there. I slammed it, and ran into a corridor. I didn't hear you come after me, so I went back upstairs. I didn't really mean for that to happen, I really didn't!" James looked at Lily, almost pleading.  
  
She nodded, slowly. "I don't think you did, and I believe you." His pleading face dissolved into a relieved smile, and he half-hugged her.  
  
"Thanks. I was so worried you wouldn't!" He let go, a bit awkwardly.  
  
They had reached the Owlery by this time, and Lily found Alisande almost immediately. James insisted on tying the letter to the owl's leg, and, not all that talkative, they walked back down to the common room together. Lily walked to her dormitory's stairs. "James--goodnight." She smiled a bit.  
  
He smiled back. "You too. See you at breakfast!" Both of them disappeared towards their respective four-posters immediately, a bit shy and silent Lily was a bit dissatisfied with her and James' conversation, but kept her opinions to herself as Gryffindor Tower threw itself into a large studying session for the mid-terms. Hardly anyone had time to talk, as Professor McGonagall taught all of the students and she had made the exam extra hard to make up for the easy ones her mother used to give. Just a week before the exams, Professor Sinistra had informed them that she would be testing them on their constellations three days before their regular exams, on the top of the Astronomy Tower at midnight. Professor Cauldwell wasn't giving them an exam; he was rather nice, even though he was the Head of the Slytherin House. He'd only taken ten points away from Gryffindor the last time Sirius had toppled Malfoy into his cauldron, causing Malfoy to emerge with a swelling nose and ears, huge hands clamped over his bulging eyes. Lily was spending more time with Eva and Vanessa lately. She didn't know why, but every time she came near her old friends, James and Sirius broke off all conversation and started to rummage in their bags or bury themselves in a book. After a few days of that, Lily gave up trying to talk to them, which was made especially easy, since Slytherin had flattened Hufflepuff and Gryffindor beaten Hufflepuff into the ground with not even their ears showing at the last match of the season. James had been surrounded by admirers ever since, and even if he had been speaking to Lily, it would have been hard to get anywhere near him. Their Defense Against the Dark Arts exam turned out to be a long essay. Professor Varla told them that she'd originally wanted to have them do a traditional obstacle course, but as they had just finished werewolves, they should really have exams on them, and she had not been able to find an available werewolf who didn't care about people staying away from him or being attacked, and they couldn't do this at night, as they were holding their Astronomy lesson the night of the full moon.  
  
Lily did really well on the essay; Professor Varla told her privately that she had made one hundred and fifty percent on the exam.  
  
The Astronomy lesson came far too quickly. Lily was trudging up to the tower with Vanessa at five till midnight, wishing she had taken a nap.  
  
Every two students were assigned to a telescope, and Vanessa and Lily moved to one pointing straight at the moon.  
  
Vanessa frowned at her parchment. "So what exactly are we supposed to do here?"  
  
Lily smiled absentmindedly, moving the telescope for a better glimpse of Andromeda. "We're supposed to draw all of the constellations and label them on that sheet." She squinted a bit. "You draw. Put the North Star in the center of that big circle."  
  
Vanessa grinned. "Thanks a bunch for studying so much. I'm really bad at Astronomy."  
  
Positioning the telescope again, Lily frowned. "No problem. Listen, measure two inches away from that dot you drew...I think that's the Big Dipper..."  
  
An hour later, Vanessa and Lily had a completed chart. Vanessa sighed in relief. "Whew! And I thought that werewolf essay was hard!"  
  
Lily giggled. "It wasn't that bad, actually. I--wait a minute." She had turned back to the telescope and was pointing it towards the moon. "We have a full moon tonight."  
  
Vanessa raised her eyebrows. "You just noticed?"  
  
"No...Hand that in to Professor Sinistra. I've got to go to the library." And without a word, she dashed downstairs, leaving Vanessa on the tower with her jaw practically hanging off the tower's railing all the way down into the lake. The exams passed rather uneventfully, and Lily hadn't revealed to anyone her reason for dashing off madly to the library. She had been spending lots of time with Remus, who was walking around the emptier halls with a scared expression and jumping at every little noise. She hadn't been teasing him as much as she had, and James and Sirius were avoiding both of them a bit. Lily was usually in in the common room with Eva, Vanessa, and Remus, all of them looking through heavy books or just talking. Christmas was coming up, and all of them had written to their parents to ask them to send them presents for their friends, as they weren't allowed inside Hogsmeade.  
  
Two nights before Christmas, Lily and Remus were playing chess in front of the common room fire. Lily was desperately trying to save her queen, which, as she was just learning chess, seemed impossible. The ebony queen was surrounded in a corner by a tower and two bishops, each of them protected and invincible.  
  
"Remus, this situation happens every time. What am I doing wrong?"  
  
Remus moved his knight to guard a bishop. "I'll tell you once you lose. It's actually beatable, but it takes a bit to see the flaw in this strategy."  
  
"Once I lose. Gee, that consoles me." Lily bent over the board. "Remus, what do you want for Christmas? You never told me."  
  
Leaning back into his couch, Remus assumed a thoughtful expression. "Well, if you could get James and Sirius to talk to me again--or at least to find out why they're not talking to me, that might be nice."  
  
Lily scowled. "A real present. C'mon, I already told you I'd like some drawing pencils and several German books. At least you have an idea of what to give me. I don't know what you'd want."  
  
Remus rolled his eyes. "What do you want German books for? English I can halfway understand, but German?"  
  
Lily halted her hand on its way to a pawn. "I like to translate."  
  
Remus looked down at the board. "Did you touch that pawn?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Oh. I thought you did. Anyway, I know what you should give me--I just thought of it." He stopped as a shadow fell over the board. "Oh, hi, James. Want to watch?"  
  
James scowled. "What should she give you? I thought the guy usually supplies the wedding ring." He bent down to the game. "Here. Checkmate." With that, he vanished up his dormitory stairs, leaving a disgruntled Remus behind and a smirking Lily, whose knight had checkmated Remus' king.  
  
"Ha! I won that time. But what on earth was he so mad about?"  
  
Remus frowned. "I don't know. No offense, but the last thing I want to do is marry you. What is wrong with him and Sirius lately?" Lily woke up on Christmas morning with a heavy weight on her feet. Groggily opening her eyes, she blinked towards a large pile on the end of her bed. She sat up in bed and immediately was thrown back onto her pillow by a flying pillow launched at her head, aimed from Vanessa's bed.  
  
"Get up! Presents!" Lily grinned and crawled out of the sheets. She went to the window, looking out on the castle grounds. "Look; it's snowing!" By now Eva and Amanda were up, too. "Who cares? Oh, look, I think this one's from my mom. Wonder what this one is." Amanda had spotted a lumpy package with a gold card and reached for it. "Fizzing Whizbees! See what you have, Lily." Lily jumped onto her bed, pulling her slippers onto her cold feet. Wrapping herself in a blanket, she turned over her presents. "Mom sent me something...several somethings...oh look, wasn't that nice. Eva, look!" She held up a package of books. "Hebrew and German!" Eva rolled her eyes. "I will never understand you and your insane desire for books." She buried her hands in a bag full of Chocolate Frogs and threw them to the whole dormitory. "Catch!" Lily slowly worked her way through her pile, revealing, among other things, several bags of colored ink, pictures of her room at home, bags and bags of candy, several Owl Treats, and a book full of hexes from her father, who had fallen in love with the Flourish and Blotts bookshop in Diagon Alley. Finally, at the bottom of the pile, she came across gifts from Remus, James, Sirius, and Peter. Peter's she opened first. Raising her eyebrows at the Sugar Quill, she moved on to Remus'. She smiled when she opened it. A scarlet scarf had fallen out, with a golden lion on the front. Remus had attached a note.  
  
I thought you might want something to wear to the Gryffindor Quidditch matches, since you don't have anything red.  
  
Thanks for everything,  
  
Remus 


	7. Christmas, snowball fights, and a neckla...

Lily smiled. "You're welcome." she whispered.  
  
Next came Sirius'. He had sent her a book of all of James' hexes, all compiled and handwritten. "Wow." Lily grinned. "This was a bit of a suicidal gift, Sirius."  
  
Lily picked up James' present. Slowly, she slit open the card. The small envelope was regular parchment with "To Lily" written on it in burgundy ink. Carefully, almost as if expecting the small pieces of parchment to explode in her face, Lily took the letter out of the envelope, unfolded it, and read:  
  
Dear Lily,  
  
I'm sorry about being really cold to you. I guess I just thought you were getting really close to Remus and pulling both yourself and him away from us, so both Sirius and I wanted to prevent that.  
  
But last night Remus asked to talk to Sirius and me, and he told us everything. About how you had figured out he was a werewolf on the Astronomy exam night, didn't tell anyone, and didn't avoid him, either, and about how you had to put up with me and Sirius'--well, I'd rather not say what I think, but I know what you must think of us now.  
  
I guess the only thing for me is to say that I'm sorry. I was a bit jealous of the time you were spending together, I mean, not boyfriend/girlfriend jealous, just mad that you weren't around anymore. You're a great friend and I hope I didn't spoil your first year here.  
  
Oh, and by the way, if one of your presents is a single yellow rose, tell me. If it's there, it'll come without a card. I think you'll get a laugh out of it.  
  
Thy humble servant who deserves to be crushed into dust at thy feet and then attacked by all sorts of magical creatures (they'll be easy to find, won't they? I mean, we've got the werewolf...),  
  
--James  
  
Lily nodded slowly as she folded the letter back up. So Remus had told his friends. She was surprised, but a bit relieved at the same time. He had been so afraid that everyone would shun him and try to get him thrown out after they found out that not only was he a werewolf, but he had attacked their former Transfiguration teacher and hospital nurse as they took him down to the Whomping Willow on the grounds, which had a passageway underneath it that led to the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmeade, where he transformed. It had taken all of Remus' courage to tell Lily that part. One night in the common room, he had told her that the room where she had been shut in underground was where he had stayed every month before the Whomping Willow was fully grown and could be used as a doorward to the passageway. The Shrieking Shack was haunted only by him, as he had to bite and claw himself, there being no humans around.  
  
Lily picked up James' present, glad that he was speaking to her again, kindly.  
  
The present was in gold wrapping paper, thin and crinkly. Lily unwrapped it quickly, trying not to tear the paper. She smiled as a tiny figure fell onto her bed.  
  
"James, he's adorable!" The tiny werewolf held a sign in his mouth, whimpering a bit, with sad eyes. The words on the sign were in burgundy, just like the ink on her letter.  
  
"James was a stupid fool. Forgive James."  
  
The bed creaked as Vanessa jumped onto it, right next to her. "Ohhh, who gave that to you?" She gave Lily a knowing look. "Now wasn't that sweet of him?"  
  
Lily shrugged. "I don't know what you mean. He did something stupid and apologized for it in my letter."  
  
Eva came over. "Sure. Is that all he said?"  
  
Lily gulped. Yes, he told me that his best friend was a werewolf and I knew that and was trying to be a good friend to his friend and he got jealous of us for that, so he apologized.  
  
"Yeah, pretty much."  
  
Amanda pointed towards the window. "Look, there!" An owl was flying towards the open glass panes, bearing something wrapped in silver tissue paper. It flew in, dropped the package on Lily's lap, and sped off in the direction of the Owlery.  
  
Lily laughed as a tiny yellow rose came fluttering out  
  
Puzzled at the package and its spilled contents, all the girls in the dormitory bent over the rose.  
  
"Lily, who sent you that?"  
  
"Was it James or Sirius?"  
  
"You are so lucky."  
  
"I know. If I had either of them I'd be happy, but you have both!"  
  
Lily picked up the present, wondering what this was about. "I don't think it was James. He told me in his letter–well, not really told, but he mentioned something about a yellow rose and that I'd get a laugh out of it. I wonder what he meant?"  
  
Eva started to giggle madly. "What if it's from that rat Peter? I think he likes you." Everyone burst out laughing at Lily's disgusted face, then stopped, frozen, as someone else's voice joined theirs in laughter.  
  
Amanda was the first to speak. "Who was that?"  
  
Vanessa shook her head. "I don't know. It sounded like it came from over there." She gestured towards the space between Lily's trunk and Eva's bed.  
  
Tentatively, the girls moved over to the area Vanessa had indicated. When they were five feet away from the wall, a giant blast of light threw them halfway across the room, making them land painfully on their backs.  
  
Lily raised herself up as she heard muffled laughter speeding across the room and to the dormitory's door.  
  
"And stay out, who or whatever you are!" She frowned. Slamming the door, she glanced at her roommates, each hobbling to the closest bed they could find and plopping themselves down, rubbing aching and throbbing backs. "We'd better get dressed quickly. I hope nothing else is in here."  
  
With much persuading and more Tickling Curses, she managed to push Amanda and Eva off of her bed so she could put her presents away.  
  
Lily put the small werewolf, now on his knees and turning into a human, onto her nightstand, smiling slightly as he clutched her finger and bit it gently, managing to place the sign on her hand. Lily put it back inside its mouth and slipped into her robes, tying her hair back with a kerchief.  
  
Vanessa and Lily preceded Eva and Amanda down to the common room. The other twins with brown hair had gone home for Christmas, so the inmates of the dormitory were finally able to get up without black circles around their eyes. "They can stay home, too, for all I care." had been Amanda's response.  
  
Downstairs, Lily saw James and Remus at the fireplace, talking intently. She headed straight over. "Good morning." Placing herself on a scarlet couch, she arranged herself Indian-style and tapped Remus on the shoulder, who was staring into the flames. "So you told him, Remus?" I didn't think I could take much more of this...I mean, I hate to sound like a wimp, but I thought people'd start to attack me if they found out what I did to those teachers...but I wanted to know what my friends would think of me." Remus looked up at Lily. "I guess it was you that made me decide to tell them...I dont' know how to say thank you."  
  
Lily smiled. "Don't. I hate being thanked--it makes me nervous because I don't know how to respond."  
  
James regained a mischievous grin. He flung himself at her feet, pulling at the hem of her robes.  
  
"Thank you, kind spirit, thank you so much for inspiring my friend! I beg of you to accept my thanks! And thank you a thousand times for accepting my apology as a remedy against the crime my indifferent person has committed against thy sacred being! I--Ouch!"  
  
Lily put her shoe back on. "I told you not to thank me."  
  
"No. You told Remus that." Lily waved her shoe threateningly in his face. "All right, I'll stop!"  
  
Lily settled back into the couch. "You said something about a rose in that letter you sent me. You also said you'd explain it. Shoot."  
  
James grinned evilly. "Did you get it?"  
  
Reaching into the pocked of her robes, Lily pulled out the flower she had recieved, looking a bit apologetic as she handed it over and a few petals fell off. "I did."  
  
Taking the flower, James smirked. "Guess who sent it to you."  
  
Lily raised her eyebrows. "The opinion of the girls in my dormitory is that Peter sent it. It's perfectly ridiculous, of course, but it was the only idea they had."  
  
James picked a hanging petal off the flower. "His name starts with an S." "An S? James, give me a real answer. Do you know how many people in this school have names that start with that letter–First or last name?"  
  
James grinned. "First."  
  
Lily frowned. "First name starts with an S?"  
  
Sirius whirled around from his game of checkers with Miranda. "What about me?"  
  
James waved to him to come over. "The rose thing."  
  
"Oh." Sirius was grinning from ear to ear. "That." He swung himself over the back of Lily's chair and landed right beside her. "Tell her."  
  
Lily was confused. "Tell me what?" She looked from James to Sirius in expectation.  
  
James took something out of his pocket. "Recognise anyone in here?"  
  
Pulling the piece of paper close to her eyes, Lily gazed at it incredulously.  
  
It was a simple, but very well done sketch of herself; a depiction from her shoulders up. She was smiling in the drawing, with her eyes sparkling and a lock of red hair tucked behind one ear. She was wearing an earring of a dazzling green, which she recognised as one of a pair she had worn about a week before school let out for the Christmas holidays. Behind her, she recognised the bright and cheery walls of the Charms classroom. The drawing was done in coloured pencil, with a small black scribble of a signature in the bottom right corner. Lily accepted the small, not very strong magnifying glass Sirius handed her and studied the writing.  
  
"I can read S–something. Don't you have a better magnifying glass?"  
  
James smiled. "I have something better." He pulled his wand out. "Engorgio!"  
  
Lily watched as the sketch grew to four times its normal size and had to be laid down on the floor for inspection. She slid down from the couch and sat on the carpet, next to the signature.  
  
"S. Snape?" Her eyes widened. "Why–" She stopped in amazement.  
  
James grinned. "Well, what do you think?"  
  
Lily managed to recover herself. "I think it's very good."  
  
Sirius waved that aside. "No, the fact that our dearly beloved Slytherin enemy, the hater of Muggle-borns, drew a picture of you and kept it in his pillowcase."  
  
Lily started to laugh. "His–his pillowcase? What on earth…" Her voice trailed off.  
  
Remus nodded. "His pillowcase. Although James and Sirius haven't revealed to me how they found it there…hint, hint." He punched Sirius lightly in the stomach, who immediately keeled over, coughing and choking.  
  
"Please–no touch–no touch! –Sirius allergic to wolfies!"  
  
Lily and James looked at each other in surprise, then burst out laughing along with Remus and Peter at the sight of Sirius curled up in a ball and scratching himself madly while rolling on the floor. Recovering himself first, James rolled his eyes, catching a glimpse of the flurries of snow whirling outside the window. His eyes twinkled. "Sirius, get up. We're having a snowball fight!"  
  
Half of the Gryffindors that had been in the common room made a mad dash for their dormitories in search of cloaks and mittens. Skilfully avoiding being stampeded, Lily wound her way upstairs through the throng.  
  
She ran to her trunk, opened it, and burrowed through her things for a dark- green cloak with a hood, lined with black felt that her mother had sent her at the beginning of the holidays. Wrapped in the cloak were thick black gloves and a dark green scarf, which Lily threw on as fast as she could.  
  
Eva followed her down the stairs, muffled in a pale blue cloak with white fur around the edges and collar. Her parents were rich, very rich, which had excited the envy of many of the girls. Quickly, they climbed out of the portrait hole, sprinting down the corridor as fast as they could.  
  
For the first time in days, Lily stepped out of the front doors, gasping as she saw the amount of snow on the grounds. The lawns were covered in four feet of snow, and they had to fight their way through the drifts to get to a somewhat less snowy area underneath a weeping willow.  
  
Eva and Lily cleared a sort of path to the willow, only ten feet long but surrounded on each side with snowy walls, as thick as they could make them. The path was made of snow that they had stamped and jumped on, till it was so thick that they couldn't have pushed a shovel through it.  
  
They were just erecting a sort of doorway at either end with the help of Vanessa, Amanda, James, Sirius, Miranda, John, and Remus when a roar from the castle gates announced the arrival of the rest of the Gryffindors. Most of them jumped off of the castle steps, landing in the soft snow and managing to sink halfway through it. The students who hadn't were fighting their way through the snow to the end of the pathway to the willow, where they were putting up a fort and packing ammunition together as fast as they could. John conjured a megaphone, climbing on top of a pile of snow. "My fellow Gryffindors." The students fell silent. "We have invited the other Houses out here, and we're going to kick them into next winter, where hopefully they will fall into a snowdrift even larger than this one." The Gryffindors cheered. "So don't waste your snowballs on any of us."  
  
He stepped down, made the megaphone vanish, and went to the other side of the willow to help Miranda and Lily conjure up a high snowy wall all around the tree's drooping branches.  
  
By the time the rest of the participating school came outside, the Gryffindors had made a regular war fort out of their willow. There was no more willow to be seen; instead, a white half-circle a foot thick had been erected right next to the lake. Surrounding it was a wall seven feet high, and, as a finishing touch, an elegant doorway opened into the willowy, white grounds and a Gryffindor flag, stolen from the Great Hall, waved jauntily on the top of the half-circle. Practically everything was put up by magic, especially most of the dome, the banner, and the doorway. Inside the willow, the Gryffindors not helping with the fort were busy making snowballs. There were mounds of them stacked up near the back, and the grounds weren't even starting to look less white.  
  
The rest of the school stormed outside, but no sooner had they made it down the steps but they were met in mid-jump by a shower of snowballs. The Gryffindors had made two tiny ditches near the entrance doors and ten of them were hiding inside the ditches with a large supply of ammunition. Taking advantage of the confusement and entanglement of the rest of the school, the scouts scurried back to the willow.  
  
The victims, instead of separating, drew together in an attack towards the Gryffindors. Marching as an army would, with Malfoy and a Hufflepuff girl as captains, they surrounded the dome. There were no guards at the doors, so Malfoy entered first. He soon wished he hadn't.  
  
Squeezed against the wall were about forty Gryffindors on each side, each armed and ready. Malfoy retreated, limping, with smarting red cheeks and his black fur cloak covered in snow. Stunned by the attack on Malfoy, the rest ran to retreat.  
  
Lily, from her post behind the fort, grinned evilly as she guided a humongous, oversized snowball over the heads of the school. The diameter of the thing had to be thirty feet, and the constant Engorgio's were making it swell even larger. At the moment when Malfoy was running back, she was getting ready to release the cannonball from where it hung on its invisible hook. Lily flicked her wand, but never got past that as a huge weight fell on her from behind. One of the Ravenclaw-Slytherin-Hufflepuff army had hung around the Forbidden Forest, watching the attacks and meaning to force his way in from the back of the willow. About to curse the snowy wall, he saw a figure, crouching, move towards his army with a breath-takingly large snowball held up in the air. He saw the figure raise its wand, and, making up his mind in a split second, he dashed forward, hurling himself on the Gryffindor.  
  
Lily was lying on her stomach with her wand hurled far from her and an enemy on her back. Her wand was too far away for her to reach, so, using a trick she often put into practice when attacked like this at her old Muggle school, she kicked up as hard as she could. Her foot connected with her attacker and made him fall off, groaning in pain.  
  
Lily jumped up, her wand too far away to reach, but her fists were doubled. She tried to inch towards her wand, but couldn't manage it with her opponent dashing at her every chance he got. Three feet away from her wand, her arm was pinned under her and the other arm was being twisted. She let out a scream, and almost immediately, a familiar voice came to her ears. "Hey, get off her! Get off!" James had tackled the attacker after making the snowball land on the small army, hard. Trying to see if her hand would still move by itself, Lily crawled away, tearing her scarf away from where it had been wrapped around her face. One of the Ravenclaw-Slytherin- Hufflepuff army had hung around the Forbidden Forest, watching the attacks and meaning to force his way in from the back of the willow. About to curse the snowy wall, he saw a figure, crouching, move towards his army with a breath-takingly large snowball held up in the air. He saw the figure raise its wand, and, making up his mind in a split second, he dashed forward, hurling himself on the Gryffindor.  
  
Lily was lying on her stomach with her wand hurled far from her and an enemy on her back. Her wand was too far away for her to reach, so, using a trick she often put into practice when attacked like this at her old Muggle school, she kicked up as hard as she could. Her foot connected with her attacker and made him fall off, groaning in pain. Lily jumped up, her wand too far away to reach, but her fists were doubled. She tried to inch towards her wand, but couldn't manage it with her opponent dashing at her every chance he got. Three feet away from her wand, her arm was pinned under her and the other arm was being twisted. She let out a scream, and almost immediately, a familiar voice came to her ears.  
  
"Hey, get off her! Get off!" James had tackled the attacker after making the snowball land on the small army, hard. Trying to see if her hand would still move by itself, Lily crawled away, tearing her scarf away from where it had been wrapped around her face. She plunged her wrist in the snow, wincing. James and his assailant were still fighting, his opponent clearly winning. He threw James off and rushed towards Lily, who got up off of her knees, shaking her hood back. Snape stopped dead in his tracks. "Lily?" Lily pulled her hair out of her collar. "I thought you were going to attack me. You're not doing a very good job of it." Snape started to turn a bit red. He swished around and went for the entrance doors. James came up to Lily, who had sunk back onto her knees, holding her wrist. "He'd better be glad he didn't hurt you too much, otherwise he wouldn't be retreating right now. He'd be having his face ground into the snow. C'mon. I'm taking you to Madam Pomfrey. She's pretty good; she should fix this up." Glaring at Snape's retreating figure, James took Lily up to the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey was very good. She fixed up the twisted wrist in about five seconds, then dried up Lily and James' clothes with a wave of her wand. She handed both of them a mug of watered-down Pepperup Potion, muttering on and on about the dangers of snowball fights, finally sending them downstairs to their common room, forbidding Lily to go outside again that day.  
  
They passed a rather comfortable afternoon in front of the fire, with James teaching Lily the finer points of chess and introducing her to his Hogwarts house-elf friend, Minky, who, among loud protestations of pleasure at meeting Lily, brought up a steaming pitcher of hot chocolate and two mugs. ("Minky is so pleased to meet miss. Minky does not know how Minky can express Minky's gratitude at being allowed to meet miss, indeed, Minky is honoured, miss.") The Christmas feast was delicious, as usual, James said, a bit blasé, as he burrowed through mountains of treacle tart, chocolate pudding, and blueberry ice cream. The boys' plates were heaped, and even if they had wanted to, Eva, Lily, Vanessa, Amanda, and the girls on Gryffindor's Quidditch team couldn't have stuffed themselves full to the brim, since almost every time they reached for a piece of cake or a baked potato, they would have to pull their hands back quickly for fear of being cursed or hexed by one of the boys, who seemed to think that this whole feast was only theirs.  
  
After having to content herself with a four-inch square piece of steak, a few cookies, the last baked potato, a thin slice of turkey and a tablespoonful of dressing, Lily was trying to keep her book from being spattered by chocolate pudding as she slowly ate the last few spoonfuls of the raspberry sorbet. The girls were alrather dissatisfied as they watched the Ravenclaw table, where several fifth-year girls were complaining about how much they had eaten.  
  
"Matilda, do you know, I must have gained ten pounds just tonight."  
  
"I don't see why you're talking. I had no idea that Yorkshire pudding had that many calories in it. I might have to stop eating altogether to make up for this."  
  
"You don't have to do that. If you eat celery, celery cancels itself out."  
  
"It does?"  
  
"It doesn't taste all that good, but it'll work. It's better than throwing up after every meal."  
  
Lily stared at the Ravenclaw girls. Normally, she would have been disgusted to listen to that kind of conversation, but tonight she was too jealous to care. They had actually eaten a good dinner.  
  
Amanda was the first one to say what the Gryffindor girls thought as they shifted their gaze to Sheila and her friends, who were digging into chocolate candies Sheila had received as a Christmas gift. "You know what? We need to ask to be re-Sorted into Ravenclaw."  
  
Eva nodded. "Better yet, let's go over there. Sheila knows me." She waved over to the Ravenclaw table. "Oy, Sheila!" The group turned around, curious. "We need to come over to your table."  
  
Sheila raised her eyebrows as she shot a stream of blue sparks into the air, spelling out the word, "Why?"  
  
Eva pointed to the boys, and Sheila laughed. "Enough said. C'mon over."  
  
The rest of the evening, Lily had an unobstructed view of Snape, who kept looking over to the Ravenclaw table. She wasn't sure who he was staring at, since Sheila was sitting next to her, but it seemed that every time Lily met his gaze, his eyes quickly turned back to his plate. The rest of the holidays passed rather quickly. James had given the picture Snape had drawn to Lily, who didn't really know what to do with it, so she stuffed it in the lining of her trunk. Snape had found out that James and Sirius had swiped it, so he had withdrawn into the Slytherin common room, obviously hoping to avoid the teasing James and Sirius were planning.  
  
Far too quickly, the students came back and classes started again. Snow was whirling thickly outside, so every Herbology lesson that was scheduled with Professor Groves was cancelled, as people kept cutting class to avoid having to walk across the grounds in six-foot deep snow.  
  
It was during one of those free periods that Lily found herself in the frosted window of her dormitory, playing with the elf-nymph necklace, which she wore around her neck, and staring into the midnight-blue pendant. She was passing her fingers along the thinly woven gold chain when her eyelids drooped and her head fell onto her chest, her hands clutching the necklace.  
  
She had the sensation of falling, falling down into space, and was just wondering when and if she would ever stop when, abruptly, she fell into a wet, dewy substance. She shook her head violently, then, struggling out of the dew, which contained many watery plants, she managed to climb onto a rock close to her. Shivering a bit, she drew her wet robes close to her body. There was a splash near her, and when she opened her eyes to look at the thing that had made the noise, she almost fell off of her rock.  
  
It was a creature that reminded her a bit of the pictures of veelas she had studied in Defense Against the Dark Arts, but in a way it was nothing like a veela. It–or, rather, she, had a sheet of silvery hair that hung down her back. Her snake-shaped eyes were a deep greenish silver, and her ears were pointed and long. She had unnaturally long fingers and unpainted silver nails. Her lips were the same colour as her eyes, and her skin was pale, pale as the crescent moon, with a silvery shine as she moved. Around her neck hung a silver necklace, thinly woven and delicate, with a dark green emerald clasped in silver talons. She didn't wear a shirt or robe; she had on what seemed to Lily to be the top of a bathing suit. Again, it was and was not anything like a bathing suit top; it was made of silver strands of light, which sparkled and glimmered in the glittering gloom around them. The creature leaped out of the water, and Lily had to stifle a gasp of astonishment as she swam towards her; the creature had a long greenish- silver fish-tail, flowing and graceful as it glided through the dewy plants and the mists, reflecting the light and multiplying what little light hit it. Her tail was longer and more beautiful than that of any mermaid; she would probably have taken it as an insult if Lily had called her that. Coming up out of the dew again, she made her supple, sweeping way over to Lily's side. Her head only inches from Lily's, she reached slowly for the necklace Lily wore around her neck.  
  
Lily started back, frightened, as she caught sight of her own normally emerald-green eyes, reflected in the pendant the creature wore. They had a silver gleam in the pupils.  
  
She toppled backwards off of the rock and fell back down, down, until she hit the windowsill hard, opening her eyes with a start. Still frightened, Lily tore the necklace off and threw it into the bottom of her trunk, slamming the lid down. Breathing hard, she dashed towards the common room, frightened to be alone in the room with the necklace.  
  
Downstairs, she ran towards Eva, who was finishing up some homework. "Lily, what's wrong? You look as if you've just seen a ghost!" Taking the shaking shoulders of her friend, she made Lily lie down on a couch. "What happened?"  
  
Lily gasped for breath, shivering. "Eva, I just saw an elf-nymph."  
  
Eva looked at Lily as if she had gone insane. "You saw a what? How do you know?"  
  
Lily shook her head, biting her lips till the blood came. "I don't know. I don't know."  
  
Staring into Lily's eyes, Eva let out a small scream. "Lily!" 


	8. A Quidditch match and a decision

She started. "What?"  
  
"Your eyes! They've got silver streaks in them!"  
  
Both of them, leaping off of the couch, shot to the dormitory, which had a large mirror hanging on the wall. Lily peered at her eyes. They were shot with silver, rimmed and fringed with light, just as those of the elf-nymph had been. Lily and Eva had never told anyone what had happened that morning, one of the reasons being that they had no proof. The silver light in Lily's eyes had gone out as soon as she had stared in the mirror, and Lily absolutely refused to try to get back to where she had been in that dewy gloom. She never spent a minute alone if she didn't have to, and during the cancelled Herbology lessons she was to be found in the library, burying herself under mountains of books. James and Sirius had quieted down a bit and weren't playing as many pranks on their teachers as they had been; they were spending the time that they usually passed in the common room of the Great Hall in the library or their dormitories, close-lipped and short-tempered if anyone interrupted them. Peter tagged along after them more than ever, causing their tempers to erupt more than once in the common room.  
  
Remus' secret was well kept; only Lily, James, Sirius, and Peter knew about it, not counting some of the teachers. He had regained his old cheery sort of personality, despite having to go to the Shrieking Shack again, and he spent lots of his time urging James and Sirius outside, where the snow was melting. It almost knocked Lily off her feet when she heard that James was refusing to train for the match against Slytherin. Remus had given her the news when she was in the common room playing checkers with Eva.  
  
"Hey, Lily, guess what?"  
  
"Cows have wings and you just hooked up with Serverus Snape. I don't know. Tell me."  
  
Remus scowled a bit. "That was uncalled for. You're more likely to do that than me."  
  
"I am not!" Lily got up off of her pouf.  
  
"I just meant because you're a girl—calm down, for Pete's sake."  
  
"Oh." Pacified, Lily sat back down, moving one of her checkers. "Queen me."  
  
Remus was starting to get a bit impatient. "Lily! I'm trying to talk to you!"  
  
Lily frowned. "All right, all right. Eva, I'm coming right back." Hopping over the small table, she went to the window seat with Remus, who was looking rather worried. "What?"  
  
"It's about James." Lily started. "Nothing serious—well, maybe it is. You know what a Quidditch nut he is, right?"  
  
She raised one eyebrow. "Remus, this is James we're talking about here."  
  
"Exactly. He's never really liked his position as Seeker; he's always wanted to be a Chaser. Well, he's been promoted."  
  
Remus was interrupted by a beaming light flashing all over Lily's face. "He has? Really? He never told me--"  
  
"Of course he didn't. That's what I need to talk to you about."  
  
Lily frowned. "All right—shoot."  
  
"He's refusing to train."  
  
"He is what?"  
  
"We have a match on Saturday against Slytherin, and your stubborn boy—your stubborn friend is refusing to train. You'd better come talk some sense into him."  
  
"Of course I will. Where is he?" Remus laughed. "This is so unlike James, but where else would he be?'  
  
"Oh." Lily assumed a rather determined expression. "Library, I'm guessing."  
  
And with that, she climbed out of the portrait hole with Remus at her heels, carrying James' bag with his Quidditch things. When Lily came into the library, the first thing she saw were Sirius and James' heads bent over several books. She walked quietly towards them, the carpet helping to muffle her footfalls. Three feet behind their chairs, Lily caught sight of a picture on one of the pages in James' book. She coughed rather loudly.  
  
"Ahem!" Both of the boys started and turned around, each closing their books with a bang. James stood up. "What do you want, sneaking up behind people like that?"  
  
Lily must have looked rather hurt, for Sirius punched James in the shoulder lightly. "Hey, don't be so mean to her; it's not her fault you're in a bad mood." He turned to Lily, putting his arm around her shoulders, casually. "What'd you come in here for?"  
  
Lily shrugged his arm off. "I came in here to see him." She pointed towards James with the toe of her shoe. "Remus told me you're refusing to train. Why?"  
  
James looked rather uncomfortable. "I—I—"  
  
"You're one of the most important members of the team. We don't have any reserve Chasers."  
  
"I—I know, but…I've got work to do."  
  
"What are you studying? I know for a fact you don't have anything for Transfiguration."  
  
"How?"  
  
"Remus. So what's that Animagi book doing on your lap? If you want to hide it, you'd better hold your robe over it." James blushed. "Nothing. I—we're just interested in the theory."  
  
Lily gave him a disbelieving look. "Right. Anyway, James, you have to train. Think of the shame if Slytherin beat us!"  
  
James shrugged, but his expression was a bit twisted. "We'll live."  
  
Remus sighed. "See, I told you he's sick."  
  
Lily set her mouth in a tight line. "James, I promise you, if you don't go out there and make us win the Quidditch Cup, you're going to regret it."  
  
He laughed. "Yeah, right. How?"  
  
Instead of answering, Lily turned to Sirius. "Does he blush easily?"  
  
Sirius smirked. "Depends on who's around him."  
  
"Really." Lily raised her eyebrows. "I didn't want to have to resort to this. James, if you don't get on that field right this minute, Eva and I are going to attack you tomorrow morning in front of the school at breakfast. I think she has some black and red lipstick."  
  
His eyes widened. Sirius and Remus were holding in laughter. Grabbing his things from Remus, he dashed out of the library, which echoed with peals of laughter.  
  
Back in Gryffindor Tower, Lily was looking out of the common room window onto the Quidditch field, where the team members were rocketing around on their brooms, and, in John and James' case, trying to knock each other off of their respective brooms and earning a loud lecture from the captain, who was fed up with their fooling around. Lily could hear the shouting clear up to her window.  
  
It looked as if, for the first time in weeks, James had shed a massive burden and was starting to enjoy himself. Lily realized that he hadn't known how much he had missed his favorite pastime, and she felt glad that he was beginning to have fun.  
  
They trained until the gloom began to fall over the field, when, exhausted and sweaty, the team trooped indoors, falling onto couches and upsetting a game of chess several sixth-year girls had left on a table.  
  
Lily grinned. "Nice. Cora and Agatha are going to kill you for that."  
  
Miranda shrugged. "They'd have to catch me first. Oh, I saw you watching from the window—what'd you think?"  
  
Lily started to pick up the chess pieces. "Very nice. Even better, since you have your Chaser back." She elbowed James in the side. "I could tell how much you enjoyed that. Why were you refusing to practice before?"  
  
"Oh…" He looked a bit embarrassed. "I don't know. I was busy."  
  
"Buried under dusty tomes. I know how much fun you must have had doing that."  
  
"I had to study!"  
  
"For what subject?"  
  
"Er…Transfiguration. Yeah, that's it. McGonagall's class, you know," he added at a disbelieving look from Lily.  
  
"I thought Mr. I Know Everything She has to Teach Us didn't need to study. You're way beyond any of the other second years, and you know that."  
  
James grinned, heading to his dormitory. "I do know. I needed background information. You don't exactly have to tell me that I'm way beyond any of you nutters," he flung over his shoulder along with a fingernail-sized metal object. It landed on Lily's robes and shrunk her to an extremely dissatisfied fox caught in a trap, shrieking madly at the now empty staircase and at the roaring common room. It was the morning of the Quidditch match, and the first game James would have in his new position as Chaser. He was getting a lot of attention from the Gryffindors, who were convinced that as long as they kept him from the library or any of the books that he had checked out, they stood a good chance of winning. Many people had taken to surrounding him whenever he was on his way to the Great Hall, knowing that was the time when he usually went to the library.  
  
Everyone was excited about this game: if the Gryffindors won this one, they'd have a winning streak for the Quidditch Cup lasting three years. Because of the heat, this match had been moved from the middle of April to February, which resulted in euphoria from the students.  
  
The Slytherins were growing downright nasty; their team had tried to take over the field and ended up in the hospital wing, the Gryffindors having foreseen this and had been breathing down James' neck to get the latest jinxes he'd been working on.  
  
Malfoy, the team's manager, and Alton, one of the Slytherin Beaters, ended up in the hospital wing with hands so full of blisters they couldn't hold their brooms, while two of their Chasers got caught in a storm of flying jinxes and were screened from view in the hospital wing owing to having sprouted a nasty foot fungus and firmly attached Marie Antoinette-style wigs; ones that towered two feet above their heads, were powder gray, and had entire landscapes built into them.  
  
Lily was as excited about the game as anyone else, and finally had an occasion to pull out Remus' Christmas gift; the Gryffindor scarf, from her trunk. She refused to don the golden dress that she had worn to the last two matches, preferring not to be so ostentatious.  
  
Eva was rather disappointed, as she had hoped that there would be a large conflict between James, Sirius, and Snape over Lily.  
  
Lily had ridiculed that suggestion. "Eva, for the thousandth time, I'm not going to act like a silly boy-crazy nymph who has nothing better to do with her life. I'm there to watch the match, and that's all."  
  
"But wouldn't it be fun to see Sirius and James—"  
  
"I SAID NO! Why would it be fun to plan to see my friends fight? Which they wouldn't, anyway."  
  
"Lily, guys are never going to be interested in you unless you try to make them interested."  
  
"Fine. Then they won't be."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"I won't ever try to make them interested again."  
  
"Liar. You will, too."  
  
Lily picked up her Transfiguration book up from the floor. "I hereby faithfully swear never to dress up for any boy for the rest of my life. There." She threw the book down. It made a loud slamming noise as it landed on the carpet. "Happy?"  
  
Eva was aghast. She was the kind of girl who took swearing on books very seriously. "You did not just do that!"  
  
Lily reached into her trunk and pulled out both brushes, hair ribbons, and curlers. "I did. Do you want these?"  
  
Eva's eyes opened, if possible, even wider. "You're actually going through with this? Do you know what you're doing? You're throwing her future out the window!"  
  
Lily nodded. "Exactly." She went over to the window, and, without hesitating, threw everything into the lake, which was just under her window.  
  
Eva sat on her bed, stunned. "You didn't!"  
  
Lily put on her scarf and pulled her hair back with a rubber band that had formerly held a bag of Bertie Botts' Every Flavor Beans. "I did."  
  
Aghast, Eva stared out the door at the retreating, too stubborn redhead.Outside, the players were standing on the field when Lily took her seat on the bleachers next to Heather and Anne, the twins who slept in her dormitory and snored so loudly. Lily wasn't all too excited about the seating arrangements, which grew worse when the twins stood up to cheer for Gryffindor as the teams took off and jammed Lily's foot in between the boards of the bleachers. It took her ages to get it out, and when she finally managed it, Ashley Thomas and Miranda had scored two goals each, and James three. He really was good, Lily thought to herself as she watched him zoom around the goalposts, managing to confuse the Slytherin Keeper soundly and sending the Quaffle through the middle loop.  
  
The Ravenclaw commentator was a bit more fired up for Gryffindor's win than he had been last time, though he was being watched closely by Professor Sinistra.  
  
"And Slytherin's Chaser Gregson is flying towards their goal with the Quaffle…loops Gryffindor Beater John Winters–OUCH–gets caught in the stomach by the bat, purely by accident, I'm sure–oh, no, never mind, Slytherin penalty. Alton flies forward, aimes, –oh, that was a nice throw–da–Professor, I said darn it."  
  
The Gryffindors were obviously having a bit of fun trying to inflict as many injuries to the Slytherin team as possible without being caught. It seemed they were keeping their own score, and Slytherin started to retaliate.  
  
Miranda Shaw of Gryffindor in possession of the Quaffle…nice dodge there, Shaw–CAREFUL, THAT'S A BLUDGER! –another nice dodge–and mysteriously, Slytherin Beater Roderick Alton gets a purely accidental bloody lip by impaling himself on his own broomstick…oh, nice shot, Miranda!"  
  
Miranda had scored. "Eighty to fifty for Gryffindor. Very nice. Couldn't have done it better myself. And the Quaffle's in possession of Slytherin Chaser Clive Allen, he gets a Bludger in the back of the leg–oh, and the Quaffle's taken from him by Gryffindor Chaser James Potter, who's just been promoted to his Chaser position; Anya MacGregor's the new Seeker–"  
  
"Cooper, we'd like to know what's happening on the field."  
  
"Right, just giving a bit of information to all those kids unenlightened of the switch, as I'm sure some of them must be, and–"  
  
"COOPER!"  
  
"Oh, right. Anyway, Potter's broomstick repels a Bludger towards Slytherin Keeper Cathryn Clarik, –that must have hurt, right in the stomach–but not a bad move from Potter, who's rushing up the field on that old-fashioned Milky Way 101, but still, not a bad player, even if his broom stinks–"  
  
"Cooper!"  
  
"All right, I give. Potter scores; score is ninety to fifty. Bright red bullet streaking for the teachers–wait–never mind–that's Anya, wonder what she's seeing–she has her hand around something–"  
  
Anya had headed for a gleam of gold right above the teacher's tent. The Slytherin Seeker Edgar Hatcher hadn't followed her, and, a triumphant smile on her face, she reached for the fluttering Snitch.  
  
The next minute, the stadium exploded. Actually, to be precise, the roof of the teacher's tent. When the thick, black smoke cleared, which it did fairly quickly, the top of the teacher's tent was a smoky, black mess, and Anya was lying on the field nearby with her arm and left leg in a twisted position, her robes blackened. Madam Pomfrey had come to watch the match, but had to retreat inside with Anya on a stretcher, a blackened and scorched imitation Snitch still clasped in the Seeker's hand.  
  
Professor Zimmermann, who was acting as referee, started to shriek at the Slytherins when she found them laughing and pointing at Anya.  
  
"Fifty points to Gryffindor! I've never seen such a disgraceful tactic before! You'd better be certain Professor Dumbledore is going to hear about this. Fifty points to Gryffindor and twenty from Slytherin!" The joyful and amused looks on the Slytherin's faces dropped like dead flies as the scoreboard announced 'Slytherin 30, Gryffindor 140'. They started to shriek with indignation, but even their Head of Slytherin House didn't put in a word. When the Gryffindor team got out of their huddle, a change in positions was announced. They had a reserve Beater, since Joseph DeVonn, the terrible Gryffindor Beater, was rather prone to injuries.  
  
They had decided to place Joseph as the Seeker and the reserve Beater, Jacqueline de Forté, in his place as Beater, since Joseph was better than she at spotting small objects, and, those changes made, both teams took off for the second time. "And…they're off! Ashley Thomas of Gryffindor gets to the Quaffle, is blocked by Slytherin Chaser Clive Allen, throws Quaffle to Potter–wait, no, Quaffle intercepted by Slytherin Chaser Stephen Gregson, who flies up the field and–oh, come on, Nigel–ugh–ten points to Slytherin, score's one-forty to forty…" The match was getting dirtier by the minute, as the enraged Slytherins were resorting to any tactic to win the game. Soon Slytherin had earned twenty more points, placing them eighty points behind Gryffindor. Nigel Patil, the Gryffindor team captain, usually a superb Keeper, had received several Bludgers in his stomach and his neck which had practically finished him off; it was all he could do to stay on his broom. James called for a time-out. "All right; we've got to do our best to keep the Slytherins and their Bludgers away from Patil.  
  
If he gets his one more time, I think we'd have to forfeit, since we don't have a reserve Keeper." Nigel sank onto the ground, massaging his badly bruised neck. Ashley and Miranda looked worried. "John and Jacqueline, one of you has got to stay near our goals." Jacqueline shook a strand of black hair out of her face. "I'll do that."'  
  
James nodded.  
  
"All right then. Patil, can you stay on the broom for that long?"  
  
Nigel nodded, wincing. He stood up, a bit shakily. "I'll try."  
  
"All right, then. Let's go!–Lily, what're you doing here?" The tousled redhead had run across the field, wand drawn and panting a bit. "I think this might work. Nigel, come here."  
  
He climbed off of his broom and limped over to Lily. "What–"  
  
"Hold the talking. Show me your neck. "  
  
Obliging, he bent over, pushing his hair out of the way, and revealed the nastiest bruise anyone on the team had ever seen. Lily pulled out her wand. "I think this might work."  
  
"You think? What if it doesn't?" Joseph was a bit angry.  
  
Lily ignored him and flourished her wand. "Revivisco!"  
  
Nothing happened for a few seconds, and John frowned. "Lily, are you sure about this?"  
  
"I've been practicing this in Herbology. I'm pretty sure."  
  
"Herbology? For heaven's sake, Lily, Nigel isn't a plant!"  
  
Lily raised her defensive eyebrow. "All right, fine. I'm leaving." She whirled around, walking off of the field.  
  
James turned to Nigel. "Hey, how are you?"  
  
Nigel was still on his knees, but he was feeling his neck in wonder. "What did she do?"  
  
"Performed some kind of plant charm on you. Are you all right?"  
  
"Plant charm? Well, she's very good." He flipped his hair back. Not a trace of a bruise remained, not on his neck or stomach. "Let's go!"  
  
The Gryffindor team looked at him in wonder. James was looking after Lily, who had regained her seat on the bleachers, looking satisfied and hurt at the same time. The team rose into the air. Nigel played better than he ever had before, though Joseph still wasn't anywhere near catching the Snitch. The only thing he had managed to do was knock into Ashley and almost throw her off of her broom. With Nigel's new streak as Keeper, the score quickly rose to one hundred and eighty to ninety, with Gryffindor in the lead.  
  
"And Potter's streaking up the field with the Quaffle–Quaffle goes to Thomas, Shaw–back to Thomas, Potter–Potter scores! Gryffindor leads with one hundred ninety to ninety!"  
  
James easily beat all of the Chasers of the Slytherin team. He and Miranda were slaughtering Slytherin and having fun doing it. The score rose to two hundred and sixty to one hundred and ten, and the Gryffindors all had sore throats from cheering. The sun was setting over the forest, and Lily's eyes were drooping.  
  
"Gryffindor's Patil pulls off another spectacular save, and there goes Thomas…Quaffle goes to Potter–Thomas–Shaw–Potter–nice loop there, James,–and GRYFFINDOR SCORES!–hang on a minute–what was that?"  
  
Joseph and Hatcher were both heading for the same gold glitter in the middle of the field. The whole stadium, noisy and raucous before, had fallen silent, watching the two Seekers hurtle towards each other with a small glimmering gold ball between them.  
  
At the last minute, a Bludger sent by the Slytherin Beater Alton whistled in front of Joseph, who turned aside sharply, giving Hatcher the milliseconds that he needed. Hatcher's fist closed around the Snitch, and he rose into the air to tumultous Gryffindor cheering. In the stands, Lily and her friends collapsed onto each other, laughing at the first delighted, then dumbstruck face of Hatcher as he heard the announcement: "GRYFFINDOR WINS AND SLYTHERIN CAN'T ADD!". He sank down towards the ground, looking more and more lost until he plummeted into a pile of melting snow which had turned to slush. Hatcher didn't even notice how soaked and dirty his robes were as his teammates landed and started to yell at him, telling him all sorts of things not exactly appropriate, but since no teacher could discern anything of what they were saying because they were all talking at once, they weren't given a month's worth of detention, which was what would usually have happened.  
  
Laughing herself sick along with the others, Lily and the rest of the Gryffindors swamped their team, tossing the Chasers in particular into the air and carrying them on their shoulders back to the dorms, Nigel holding the giant golden Quidditch Cup.  
  
After piling into the common room, the party went on all night; literally. Around five thirty Professor McGonagall came in and told them, a bit sternly, to stop, but she never got past the, "Now, I know you won the Cup, but…", because she had caught sight of the enormous amount of food James and Sirius had managed to sneak from the kitchens. Her mouth dropped and she bustled out, muttering something about irresponsible house-elves.  
  
By now, Lily's hair had partly fallen out of the rubber band and was, to put it lightly, a tangled mess. Her robes, along with those of the other Gryffindors, were a spectacle, and when she fought her way over to where James and Sirius were sitting, James' mouth dropped open.  
  
"Who are you and what have you done with Lily?"  
  
"What? Is it my hair?"  
  
"That and your robes. What happened?"  
  
"Why do you want to know?" Lily was starting to get offensive.  
  
"Well, you used to look so…so nice."  
  
"And I don't now, is that what you mean?"  
  
"Well,…yeah, pretty much."  
  
"Why, thank you. Is that the only reason you were being my friend?"  
  
James didn't reply.  
  
"You little–little–I'm not even sure what to call you. Have a nice evening." She whirled off and went to find Eva, who was looking for the amount of calories in a Fizzing Whizzbee.  
  
"Eva, you were right."  
  
"About what? Boys not falling over you if you don't care what you look like? Of course I was." She tore the wrapper open. "Why tell me that?"  
  
Lily slouched in her chair. "Those people who I thought were my friends looked at me as if I were a nasty c ockroach that needed to be stepped on fast. The first thing James said to me was: 'Who are you and what have you done with Lily!'"  
  
Eva sighed, an 'I-told-you-so'' sigh. "Well, what are you planning to do?"  
  
"I don't plan. I have an organizer programmed into my brain that does it for me. I'm not speaking to them. At all."  
  
Eva shook her head. "We'll see how long that'll last!"  
  
Lily started for her dormitory. "As long as it takes. A month and a half later, Lily and James still weren't speaking. She maintained that she didn't need the friendship of someone who only liked her because she slept on knobby,  ly curlers every night and James wouldn't back down from his view that he didn't want a friend who didn't even care enough about herself to brush her hair once in a while. The last words she'd said to him were: "Of course I don't brush it. I own combs. Oh–I forgot–is that word not in your vocabulary? Not to be rude or anything, but you obviously don't own one." With a sickly smile on her face, she had reached forward, tousled James' constantly messy hair, pulled a rooted-to-the-carpet Eva away from the fire, and walked out of the portrait hole. In front of the Great Hall, she had met Snape and Malfoy, and, with a quick glance over her shoulder to make sure James had followed her, she gave them a nice wave and a smile before burying herself in "The Standard Book of Spells, Grade One".  
  
Sirius didn't try to talk to her after that, either.  
  
It was the middle of April and the end of a particularly hard Transfiguraton class. The noise of the bell sounded through the corridors as the students scrambled for the door. Professor McGonagall held Lily back after class.  
  
"Evans, I need to speak with you."  
  
Lily was puzzled. "Of course, Professor. Have I…er, done anything?"  
  
"Of course not. Step inside my office." 


	9. Exams, fights, and another small vacatio...

Lily did so, still confused. She saw Professor McGonagall pull a folder out of her desk, open it, and put it on her desktop. "Evans, I'd like you to look through this."  
  
Lily was a bit worried now. She stepped close to the folder and started to flip through the papers, all of which she recognized. "Professor, this is my work for this year."  
  
"Exactly. Look at the grades."  
  
Lily pushed a few of the papers aside. "One hundred, ninety-eight, ninety- seven, one hundred, one hundred, one hundred and three, one hundred and twelve, ninety-six–What about them, Professor?"  
  
The usually stern teacher relaxed her face into a smile. "You are the top student in this class. Better, I think, than the top few for the last eight years."  
  
Lily blushed. "Professor, I–"  
  
Professor McGonagall held up her hand and Lily fell silent. "Miss Evans, I have spoken to the headmaster about your outstanding work in a particularly hard class. Your grades in the rest of your subjects are just as good as in this one, if not better. If you feel that you can do this, Professor Dumbledore is willing to let you skip into the third grade next year, providing your exam grades are sufficient."  
  
Slowly, Lily's face lit up. "Really? I–I'm not sure what to say–"  
  
"Would you like some time to think over such an important decision as this? I should suggest you communicate with your parents. Professor Dumbledore has already done so, but I think you might want to do so also."  
  
Lily was grinning so hard that she had to bite her lip to prevent it from attaching to the other end of her mouth in the back. "Professor, I–thank you, Professor." On an impulse, she hugged her teacher around the waist and sped out of the door, running right into Eva, who had been waiting for her.  
  
"Well, what did McGonagall want?"  
  
"Eva, you'll never guess. If my exams are good enough, they're promoting me to third next year!"  
  
Eva started to laugh. She was giggling so hard Lily had to pat her on the back as she choked on too much air.  
  
"What's so funny? Aren't you happy for me?"  
  
"Yeah, I am, but–Lily, I don't think you've thought of this."  
  
"Thought of what?"  
  
"You're going to be in the same classes as Sirius and James."  
  
Lily's smile dropped as fast as she had during the last disastrous flying lesson.Oh no. Oh NO. OH NO! Eva, what'm I going to do?"  
  
"I know. You'll have to start talking to them again!"  
  
Lily humphed. "I will not."  
  
"Well, how're you going to tell them that you're going to be having classes with them next year?" Eva was still choking a bit.  
  
"I'm not. You are."  
  
"I am what?  
  
They entered the common room after dinner, which, as usual, Lily had spent with Eva, Vanessa, Amanda, and Miranda. Lily cast one glance at the fire, where James and Sirius were playing chess, and headed for the dormitories, turning back and hiding behind the doorway, unseen but able to hear all. At a nod from her, Eva came over to the boys.  
  
"Hi!"  
  
They looked up. "Oh, hi…" James was obviously puzzled. "Sit down?"  
  
Eva accepted with a smile. "Oh, thanks." She looked at the board. "Lily's helping me a bit with chess. James, didn't you teach her a lot of the game?" She hadn't been able to think of a better introduction.  
  
James looked up, the pawn still in his hand. "Don't come to me talking about your friend. If she wants to hang out with the people she knows we don't like, then, fine, she's not going to hang around us. Anything else?"  
  
Eva gulped; this wasn't going as well as she'd thought it might. "Um, yeah, look, I know you used to be friends."  
  
Sirius interrupted. "Used to be."  
  
Catching a warning glance from Lily, Eva went on hurriedly. "See, I don't really think you shouldn't be talking. I mean, you used to be all over her, so scared when that Snape-Malfoy-freeze-charm thing happened, and now it's kinda over."  
  
James stood up. "I did not use to be 'all over her', and I don't want to hear anything else about that Muggle." His eyes were dangerous. "I'm going to bed." He started for his dormitory but was held back by Sirius.  
  
"Hey, James, finish the game. I want to beat you once and I think I've go a winning game. Forget Lily. C'mon." He pulled his friend towards the chess board and made him sit down. Eva had in the meantime rejoined Lily.  
  
Lily scowled. "That didn't go very well."  
  
"Well, what did you expect me to say? Oh, hi, James, your enemy is going to be in your classes next year and desperately wants you to know about it and wants to know what you think about her skipping second year? C'mon, Lily, that would be a suicidal mission."  
  
"How so?"  
  
"Well, for one thing, you'd kill me."  
  
"Oh. Good point."  
  
"You're supposed to say: 'Of course I wouldn't do that, Eva!' Not: 'Good point'."  
  
"Well, it is a good point. Help me study for exams?"  
  
Eva snorted. "Since when does Miss I'm going to skip second year need help on her exams? I think I'm the one here who needs help."  
  
"Good point."  
  
Lily fled up the stairs, laughing as she ran away from her friend's wandNothing eventful happened during the weeks preceding the exams. Lily had dug a grave for herself in the library and was enjoying her stay in the other realm, as Amanda put it. Edgy and picky about anything that took her away from her books, the only thing that had taken her attention was a letter from home:  
  
Dear Lily,  
  
I got your letter at exactly the same time I got Professor Dumbledore's. I'm so proud of you, sweet, I could shout. Of course I'd like you to skip second year, but if you decide not to, I'll support you just the same. Petunia, I think, would support you more if you stayed, preferably over the summer holidays, as she's going to have to do a major bit of cleaning up in your room. She had lots of motivation to get as far as she has–that Howler you sent her, besides blowing out our eardrums, has made her clear about five square feet in ten hours. Please don't send any more of those.  
  
Darling, whatever you decide to do, your father and I'll support you. He wants me to add as long as it doesn't involve eloping at fourteen, but I know you have more sense than that. I love you and hope to see you this summer; actually, I'm going to see you this summer, as I'm not allowing you to stay at Hogwarts. We need to see a little bit of our favorite little witch once in a while!  
  
Love, Mother  
  
  
  
After receiving the letter, Lily had gone to Professor Dumbledore and told him that, if she passed her exams with ninety-eight percent, she would be happy to skip into third year. From that time on, she had snapped at anyone who tapped her on the shoulder to say that dinner was ready. Remus was edging away from her slowly, too. She would hardly let anyone talk to her and was getting dark rings aroung her eyes. The morning of exams, Lily had changed her normal schedule and was walking towards the Great Hall for breakfast, a large "Advanced Herbology XI" clamped under her arm. She found her usual seat and slid into it quickly, tearing the hem of her robes as she did so. Amanda was already there.  
  
"Three cheers for Lily! The queen hath emerged!"  
  
Lily scowled. "Shut up."  
  
"All right, all right. Listen, there are bad sides to skipping second year."  
  
"Mhm–hm." Lily was trying to look politely interested, murderous, bite into a biscuit, and absorb sixty pages of her book at the same time.  
  
"Why're you looking so odd? Anyway, one: you won't be with us, two:–"  
  
"That's not a drawback."  
  
"Gee, thanks. Two: you'll be picked on because you're the youngest, and three: you'll have a lot more classes. Good enough?"  
  
"In exchange for those classes, I get to cut out some of the ones I'm taking right now. The first one I'm dumping is flying lessons."  
  
Amanda sighed. "Oh, you're hopeless." She threw her hands into the air, knocking over a milk jug.  
  
"Watch it! That almost went on my book!"  
  
Instead of answering, Amanda took the Herbology volume away from where it had been situated three inches away from Lily's face.  
  
"Hey! I need that book!"  
  
"'Advanced Herbology, Volume Eleven'? How can you need this? This is a first year exam, my friend."  
  
"I know. I'm dreadfully behind; I should be on Volume Fifteen by now. Excuse me." She pushed her chair back and left the Great Hall with several crumpets, banging into Sirius and James on her way out.  
  
"Hey, Muggle, who hit you in the eye?"  
  
"Sirius, that's two black eyes. What happened, got attacked because people got so revolted when they looked at you that it was either that or hurl?"  
  
"Nah, it was probably Snape and them. They've just been getting so sick of having a piece of muck claim to be their friend that–Hey, where're you going? Can't stand the truth?"  
  
The echoes filled the entrance hall, banging off of the walls and hitting Lily in her ears everywhere she went. Tears were slowly running down her cheeks as she headed for the dormitories. Miranda hadn't left the common room yet, so she caught a glimpse of Lily's tear-streaked face as she headed up to her dormitory. Miranda followed.  
  
"Lily! What's wrong?"  
  
"I–I'm not sure. I was leaving the Great Hall–Miranda, why're James and Sirius being so mean? I don't think I could be that heartless if I tried."  
  
"You mean you met up with them?"  
  
Lily dried her eyes. "Yeah, when I was leaving the Great Hall."  
  
"Lily, you and the boys have got to stop this. And you–" she forcefully pried the Advanced Herbology book out of Lily's arms–"you have got to stop this. This is ridiculous!"  
  
"What is? Studying?"  
  
"No, going off food for five days and not coming out of the library except to sleep. And remember, Minky had to wake you up one morning when you fell asleep in there."  
  
Lily shook herself. "I remember. I was sore all over for days."  
  
"Exactly." A bell rang through the corridors and Miranda jumped up, handing Lily a tissue. The blood had drained out of Lily's face and she resembled a fainting vampire.  
  
"A–are you sure it'll be all right?"  
  
"For the twenty-seventh time, Lily, the exam is not that hard. Trust me, I took it two years ago and studied for about an hour."  
  
"What did you make?"  
  
"Herbology? Um…I think eighty-seven percent."  
  
Lily looked a bit reassured. "Thanks, Miranda. I'll see you at lunch."  
  
"You're going to be at lunch?"  
  
"Well, I've been off food for five days and only had a few crumpets this morning. Let's go."  
  
They grabbed their bags and set off for their respective classrooms; in Lily's case: greenhouse.  
  
The exam in Herbology was partly essay, partly pruning and repotting a Devil's-Horn Bush; one that caused you to sprout tiny pairs of horns wherever it bit you; if you managed to get fifty pairs of horns, it would knock you out for approximately thirty minutes. Points were taken off for every horn that a student had, and points were added if a student was horn- free. In addition to that, the bonus was reviving a small Flutterby bush whose wings were drooping. Amanda's Flutterby Bush didn't swell up and burst this time, but it did start flashing different colors and whistling noisily.  
  
To no one's surprise, Lily managed to prune and repot the Devil's-Horn Bush without sprouting little horns on her fingers and revive the Flutterby Bush on her first try. Amanda was flashing envious looks at her from across the greenhouse.  
  
The essay bit passed in a flash; it only included a few bits from that Advanced Herbology XI book. Lily left the greenhouse a bit disgruntled.  
  
At lunch, Miranda, to make sure that Lily came to lunch, had taken her by the sleeve and guided her to a full plate, heaped with chicken and baked potatoes and pieces of garlic bread.  
  
"Miranda, I don't think I'm going to eat all of this."  
  
"Well, don't think so much. Just eat."  
  
By the time the second exam started, Lily had managed to eat half of the mountain on her plate. For the first time in weeks, she felt alive as she walked down the stairs to Potions.  
  
Professor Cauldwell had assigned a Sleeping Solution to the first years. Lily breathed again. They were supposed to know the recipe by heart and make the potion from memory, and she knew this potion front to back. ("You should, after the hours you spent asking Cauldwell if you could fix up messed up potions in detention.") Breathing normally, Lily unsuccessfully tried to hide a large grin as Professor Groves called her to her office, with the good news that she had made a hundred and thirteen percent on the Herbology exam.  
  
Stepping into the common room, she was smiling so hard that hardly anyone failed to notice.  
  
"Hey, Muggle, what happened? Found out you're not going to be kicked out for terrible hygiene after all?"  
  
Lily ignored them, stepping on one of their firecrackers they had put in her way and causing it to explode in Sirius' face, turning him into a nice, new brush. Under cover of the laughter in the common room, Lily ran up to her dormitory and wrote a hurried letter to her family, telling them that she had definitely passed the Herbology exam and the Potions one. Alisande was grateful for the mission, as she hadn't been used in about three or four weeks.  
  
That night, the Astronomy exam was based on a meteor that had passed dangerously close to Mercury, and they were calculating the airspeed velocity, the mass, the speed, and the distance between it and Mercury. Grateful that she had looked up the formula for airspeed velocity, Lily fell into her four-poster, drifting off to sleep with a smile on her face as she remembered Sirius' face as he had the firecracker explode a half- inch away from his nose. Defense Against the Dark Arts was held that morning. The professor still refused to do the traditional obstacle course, so a roll of parchment on one of five subjects written on the board was required. In her tiny handwriting, Lily covered two rolls of parchment and got a nasty glare from her teacher. He had always had problems with her writing. With an apologetic smile, Lily practically threw her essay down on his desk and sped out of the door.  
  
Lily was in a good mood until she entered the Great Hall, where she passed within three feet of James and Sirius, s ing at the messy braids she had tied her hair back in.  
  
She slid into her seat, sighing.  
  
Eva looked up. "What's eating you?"  
  
"Who is eating me. Actually, I don't think they would, because I don't know if that tastes all that great-"  
  
"What are you talking about?"  
  
"James called me an electrocuted phoenix."  
  
"Ah."  
  
Amanda leaned over. "He called you a what?"  
  
"Electrocuted phoenix."  
  
"That's what I thought you said."  
  
Lily sighed. "I give up. I don't know when the last time was that I said something mean to them, but lately I've just been ignoring them. It's not making this any better, and after all they've done to me, I'm not apologizing."  
  
"But, Lil,-"  
  
"I've got to go to Charms." Lily pushed her chair back and made her way out of the Great Hall.  
  
She was the first one in the classroom. Professor Zimmermann looked up, a bit surprised, but then left her to her studying. The classroom slowly filled up, and James and Sirius still weren't there. The only empty seats were on the right and behind Lily, who suspected that Amanda had arranged that on purpose.  
  
The bell rang, and James and Sirius skidded into the classroom, panting a bit. They looked around the classroom in vain for emptier seats, then, as if resigned to their fate, started a miniature scuffle about the desk behind Lily. Sirius won. With a look on his face as if he were sitting next to a smushed and bloody corpse of a rabbit, James slid into the only free desk, his face dropping even farther as Professor Zimmermann teamed him with Lily for the exam. "Don't look like that. I don't like this any more than you do."  
  
"I'll bet you do. At least I know I like this less than you do."  
  
"James, four words, ok? Shut. Up. Or. Else."  
  
"Or else what? You'll start hitting me with a brush? Oh-sorry-I forgot-I don't think you know what that is-it's a handle with bristles on the end, and you use it to make you hair look nice-"  
  
"James, if you supposedly know what a brush is, use one yourself."  
  
"-and while you're at it, teach your boyfriend Servy how to use shampoo, if you aren't ignorant as to what that is. You are? Shampoo is a gooey substance..."  
  
Grinding her teeth, Lily made it through Transfiguration without socking him. She suspected she'd have to get her teeth fixed, though, because it felt like she'd worn away three inches of teeth she didn't know she had. Lily was sitting in the window of her dormitory that evening when the door creaked.  
  
"Lily?"  
  
She turned around. "Oh, hi, Eva."  
  
"Do you know where I've been?"  
  
"Obviously not."  
  
"Trying to get James and Sirius to say they're sorry. I don't think I'm going to try any more."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"It's hopeless."  
  
"I knew that. But how did you find out?"  
  
"They drew a comparison between your mentality and that of a cuckoo."  
  
"A cuckoo?"  
  
"Mm-hm. To the bird's advantage."  
  
"It's a good thing I wasn't down there with you. I'd have done his upper maxillary a spot of no good."  
  
"I guessed as much. Looking forward to Transfiguration?"  
  
Instead of answering Eva's question, Lily sighed and looked out of the window. "Eva, I'm not so sure if I want to do this."  
  
"What, skip?" Lily nodded. "Of course you do. C'mon, you need your rest."  
  
"All right." Quickly, Lily changed into a clean nightgown and pulled the curtains shut around her, though she lay awake for a long while, thinking.  
  
Downstairs, James was listening to a tirade from Miranda and John, who were getting fed up with the argument.  
  
"James, what's the point of being mean to her?"  
  
"She's not worth being nice to."  
  
"She was at the beginning of the year." Miranda grinned and winked.  
  
"Hey-I was just being nice to a new Gryffindor, that's all."  
  
"A very pretty new Gryffindor. And you were nice to her before she was Sorted."  
  
"Shut up." James turned around and curled up in his armchair, staring at the flames.  
  
John turned the armchair around. "You thought the world of her. I know how jealous you got when she started spending time with Remus."  
  
"Yeah. And now the only reason you're mad is because she said hi to Snape and Malfoy and helped them in Charms."  
  
"Well, wouldn't you be?"  
  
"No." Miranda was firm.  
  
"John?"  
  
He gave James a Look. "No."  
  
James sighed, throwing his hands into the air. "Look, she used to be my friend before she started hobnobbing with my enemies."  
  
"Oh, someone's using big words now. Hobnobbing. James, that one day after she got attacked in Transfiguration, you were so worried and anxious and mad I thought you'd hang Snape's and Malfoy's guts from the closest beam you could find. You were so mad when Sirius took her to the hospital wing that I thought you'd–"  
  
"STUFF IT!" "All right, all right. But you'd better make up with her. I met her right after she left the Great Hall for breakfast, before the first exam, and she was crying her eyes out. I mean, come on, how rude can you get?"  
  
James looked stunned. "She was crying?"  
  
"And how. You can't actually mean you're sorry for making her cry, are you?"  
  
The soft look that had entered James' eyes vanished. "That Muggle-born piece of slime? Of course not."  
  
Miranda left, rolling her eyes. "Liar."  
  
Nervous and jittery, Lily made it through her next day's Transfiguration exam; which included turning a dictionary into a thesaurus. As an extra flourish, she had added medieval monks' script and colorful designs to the thesaurus, along with parchment-colored paper and a soft leather jacket. Professor McGonagall was very pleased.  
  
Lily and Eva took their lunch outside, for, as if wanting to make up for the cold last year, the sun had decided to come back from her holiday. It was getting hot outside, so hot that James, Sirius, and Remus had been spotted turning Malfoy into a large boulder and tied the boulder to a contraption that swung the rock in and out of the lake, splashing the inventors with a nice, cool bit of water. They hadn't been caught yet, and no one was about to turn them in, because Malfoy provided a nice bit of refreshment. The giant squid had been rumored to have attacked Malfoy, who had managed to do something to his tentacles, and from now on the lake was safe for swimmers, since the squid had retreated to his cave about a mile down.  
  
They stretched out under the weeping willow of the last winter, which was letting in slanting bits of sunlight through its branches. As she was biting into a piece of pear, Eva poked Lily in the side.  
  
"You know, Lily, James really isn't all that bad."  
  
"Did he tell you to say that?"  
  
"No, Eva told me to say that."  
  
Lily raised herself up on one elbow. "You are Eva."  
  
"Yeah, so?"  
  
Lily slumped back. "Never mind."  
  
"But James really isn't all that bad."  
  
"He's insulted the way I look several multiple million times, called me an electrocuted phoenix, compared my mentality with that of a cuckoo to the bird's advantage, and, well, basically treated me as if I were a rotting vampire corpse. And you're telling me he's not that bad."  
  
"Never mind. You have a point."  
  
"I know."  
  
The branches in front of Lily's face were pulled away and a raven-colored head peeked through. "Lily! I've been looking all over for you!  
  
"Lily sat up. "Why?"  
  
Miranda was out of breath. "I talked to James last night. He said that–"  
  
Lily erupted. "FOR GOD'S SAKE, STOP TRYING TO GET ME TOGETHER WITH THAT–THAT TOILET CLEANER WITH A FACE LIKE A FISH!" Miranda fell backwards as Lily stormed out of the willow, leaving Eva behind with her hands clamped over her ears.  
  
Eva removed her hands. "That didn't go so well."  
  
Miranda picked herself up, dusting off her robes. "I know."  
  
"Why don't you just give up?"  
  
"Because I swore to myself that I'd see them engaged someday."  
  
"Engaged to what?"  
  
"Well, I thought to each other–"  
  
"Lily'd rather get engaged to Professor McGonagall. This is hopeless."  
  
Miranda shrugged. "I'm not giving up. They're only in their first and second years,–"  
  
"Both of them are going to be in third year next term."  
  
"Uh-oh. I don't have that much time, then, do I?"  
  
"You don't." It was the Saturday after exam week, hot and sticky. The common rooms, for once, were completely empty, and the students had gone outside and flopped on the grass. The teachers had permitted the students to swim in the lake, the temperatures rising to 40° Celsius, but as a safety precaution had stretched an invisible barrier that pinned all inhabitants of the lake twenty feet below the surface and kept James and Sirius near the surface.  
  
The students were making all sorts of makeshift bathing suits; the most popular one being regular school robes belted tightly at the waist. It was also among the easiest there was, since it didn't involve sewing or cutting. A group of seventh years had been the most creative, taking their extra sheets and transforming them into long, flowing skirts with separated tops. In a moment of boredom, they had attached small sparks in their respective House colors to the rims, so when they stood at the shores, they sparkled brilliantly.  
  
Most of the Hogwarts students had purchased sunglasses.  
  
Lily was dressed in the robes of a seventh year, which hung down a foot and a half below her feet, since she had no intention of letting the bottom of her robes float up. She had started wearing the elf-nymph necklace as soon as the memory of the misty pool had faded, which it had done surprisingly quickly. Still, every time Lily touched the midnight-blue pendant, a vision of the silvery-green, snake-shaped eyes of the elf-nymph flew up before her eyes and she tucked the necklace away among her robes.  
  
The lake water, refreshingly cold, swirled around Lily as she dived in, deeper down until her ears started to hurt. Pushing up against the barrier, she broke the surface and threw her wet hair out of her face, breathing in the summer air, eyes closed. A splash from her left opened her eyelids in a flash.  
  
"Who was that?" Close to her, Lily saw Remus sn iggering. He saw the playfully murderous look in her eyes and started to swim away, fast. Grinning a bit, Lily followed.  
  
Then, barely three feet from Remus, her foot was jerked down. Floundering helplessly and wildly in the water, she took a deep breath as she was yanked below the surface.  
  
The person's nails scratched her skin as she tried to get free, and her ankle started to bleed. Her temples throbbing for air, she caught a glimpse of gold floating above her. Lily grabbed at it mindlessly and tried to discern it; it was her necklace, which had come undone from where it had been around her neck. Knowing she could hold her breath no longer, she did the only thing possible: stared as hard as she could into the pendant's depths.  
  
Lily again felt the sensation of falling through space and again landed in the dew. She spotted the rock she had sat on before, twenty yards farther away and struck out for it, wincing as the dew melted into her bleeding foot.  
  
Lily reached the rock safely. Her foot throbbing, she pulled it out of the dew and started to rip pieces off of the bottom of the robes to tie around her ankle. "I'll have to get Mary some new ones." was her first thought. That idea was banished from her mind, however, by the almost soundless but familiar splash in the dew, although Lily had heard it only once before.  
  
The same elf-nymph came gliding towards her. She had changed; she was wearing a shimmering deep green cloak untouched by the dew and a silky shimmering silvery tunic. She dived into the water and re-emerged inches from Lily's face. The deep greenish-silver eyes were the same; snake- shaped, they still stood out against her white brow, but instead of distrust and surprise, they showed a faint sense of worry, pity, and anxiety as she lightly touched Lily's bleeding ankle.  
  
Lily couldn't have drawn away if she had wanted to; she was spellbound under the touch of the nymph, which was cold but soothing, almost like being touched by live metal. Shaking her sheet of silvery hair away from her neck, she unclasped her own silver necklace with the emerald-green pendant clasped in five silver talons. It emitted a soft green glow as she held it up to Lily's foot.  
  
The glow escaped from around the pendant, twining and fastening itself around Lily's small cuts and filling them with the green light. They blazed bright green, then dissolved into unscarred skin, with not even a trace of the wound remaining.  
  
The nymph smiled. She took Lily's hand, which the girl abandoned to her, and dived down into the dew.  
  
Seventy feet down, Lily suddenly realized she had been breathing all this time, that she was absorbing the dew like oxygen. And with each flip of the nymph's fins as they dived downward, the dew became filled almost to bursting with light; more iridescent as they descended.  
  
They rounded a corner of a deep green reef, and in front of Lily rose up a shining castle. She gave a gasp at the magnificence of the glimpse she got, and them she was falling again, falling down into space as she felt a painful tug at her arm.  
  
She shook her head several times, then realized where she found herself: being pulled out of the lake by someone. He or she was tugging her upwards by her arm, and, to her surprise and shock, Lily found that she was much deeper than she remembered ever going. She found that she could hardly move her limbs, and when she finally broke the surface, it was none too soon. Gasping for air, she let herself be pulled to shore and laid down into the hot grass.  
  
Immediately, faces crowded around her; she couldn't discern them through her partly opened eyes. Several people were hitting her in the stomach, causing her to hiccup up several mouthfuls of water. Shaking her head, she sat up and opened her eyes. 


	10. A twelfth birthday

The first thing she saw were Eva, eyes wide and worried, then Sirius bending over her next to Amanda, and finally her eyes rested on James, who was kneeling near her feet. Everyone was asking what had happened, and as they were crowding around her, the ones closest to her let out several small screams and toppled backwards onto the people behind them.  
  
Puzzled, Lily was a bit frightened.  
  
"What? What happened—what's wrong?"  
  
Eyes wide, a sixth year reached into her purse for a mirror. Lily took it from her and recognized an image she had seen once before, during the cancelled Herbology lessons of that winter. An almost surreal face blinked out at her from the mirror. She almost didn't recognize her own face; the nose and mouth were the same, but her ears, surrounded by long, wet curls, had tiny points on the tips and her eyes—her eyes were frightening. Normally, they were a shade of forest green, but this image reflected her with a ring of silver around the green and small silver strands twisting themselves through the pupils and the color. She slammed down the mirror, breathing hard, then, on an impulse, stood up and raced towards the castle.  
  
Lily didn't stop till she reached her dormitory, where she threw herself onto her bed and yanked the curtains shut. Face white and bloodless, she let herself flop onto her pillow and closed her eyes. She never wanted to remember the stunned faces of her friends and schoolmates as they saw her with her eyes filled with silver thread.  
  
Lily's thoughts drifted off, purposely, to the glimpse of the shining castle she had seen. High and towering, the silvery building rivaled Hogwarts and passed it by quite a bit. It was almost woven, so delicate did the doorway's gates seem; as if they had been made of silver thread. But when Lily tried to look back and see the castle's facade, the only thing she remembered was the gates and the shining silver it was made of before she was yanked away by the person that had pulled her out of the lake.  
  
The Monday after the lake incident, people were still edging away from her gaze, which by this time had returned to normal. They had received a notice, posted in the Gryffindor common room and before the Great Hall that exam results were to be mailed to the students once they were out of school. Professor McGonagall's mother had usually done the posting and handing out of exam results, and now that she was absent, the teachers were a bit slower at it than usual and had had to stretch their time spent on it into the holidays. It was the last day of school, and, as Eva and Lily boarded the train, they were handed a small note, on parchment and in emerald green ink, reminding them not to use magic over the holidays. Lily's face fell; she'd been hoping that the teachers would forget about these. Hoisting their trunks onto the shelves above the seats, Lily and Eva sank down into their compartment. Lily wasn't talking much; she was still a bit frightened and the fact that people kept avoiding her didn't help. She was moody all during the long trip home, only snapping out of it to beat Eva in a game of Exploding Snap.  
  
At the end of the ride; platform nine and three-quarters, Lily said goodbye to Eva with a hug, begging her to write over the summer. Eva's parents were wizards, so she met them on the platform.  
  
"Mum, Dad, this is my friend that I wrote you about; this is Lily."  
  
A tall, lanky witch wit h billowing blonde hair bent down and shook Lily's outstretched hand with a smile on her face. "I'm Eva and Vanessa's mother. How nice to see you. Are your parents here?"  
  
Lily shook her head. "I think they're out on the Muggle platform. They're Muggles, so they can't come in here—but I can introduce you if you want!"  
  
Eva's mother smiled. "Thank you, dear, but Colin and I have to get to a meeting." She poked her husband lightly in the side.  
  
Eva hugged Lily. "Lil, if I can, I'll get Mum to let me come and visit you. I've never been in a Muggle house before!" Moving quickly towards the barrier, Eva's family scooped up Vanessa and headed out.  
  
Lily sighed as Peter, who was walking towards her, scooted quickly out of her way and bumped into a rack of trolleys. "Well, so much for a good first year." With a heavy heart, she pushed her trolley through the barrier. Lily felt a bit more cheered up when her family greeted her with large hugs. Amused, Lily saw Petunia standing off to the side a bit with her eyes bulging out at the nerve of Lily, carrying an owl in a public train station.  
  
They walked out to the car, Lily's father carrying her trunk. She told them all about the Quidditch match that had won the House Cup for Gryffindor and the tricks that James and Sirius were playing on Snape and Malfoy. Petunia was the only one who didn't laugh at the account of Snape's receipt pasted to the back of his robes, but she did sn igger rather heartily when Lily told her mother about the freeze charm that had sent her to the hospital wing. They pulled into the driveway, and Lily, looking up at the house, immediately noticed that something was wrong. Her window, usually framed with creamy curtains that waved out of the window, faced the front of the house. The curtains were gone; in their place twinkled lacy white bits of rayon. Inside, Lily could spot a hanging plant throwing its leaves out of the window. Her father caught Lily's astonished glance and sighed.  
  
"Lily, dear, we had to remodel your room."  
  
"You what?"  
  
"Had to remodel your room. Petunia's blasted plants dripped dirt and leaves every time they were watered, so, naturally, we had to strip your room down."  
  
"I see." Lily nodded. "I thought I remembered something in my goodbye to Petunia, telling her clearly not to set a foot in my room."  
  
"She showed us a letter from you, telling her that she could hang up a few plants."  
  
Lily's mouth hung open. "She what? All right; that's it." She snapped her trunk open, pulled out her wand, and raced up the front door Petunia had left open when she saw the direction the conversation had been leading. Showing a bit of presence of mind, Petunia had barricaded herself in her room. Lily pushed aside the tempting thought of using the Alohomora charm and James' Tinrash Pfefferolus and dragged her trunk up the stairs, crashing into the wall and making a large dent.  
  
Breathing hard, Lily opened the door to her room, walked inside, and stopped, stunned. Ruffles. Nothing but ruffles. Everywhere the eyes peeked, ruffles. Around the tabletop of the dressing table with a heart-shaped mirror on top, ruffles on the dust ruffle, ruffled curtains and frilly pillows everywhere the eye looked. Lily felt sick.  
  
She stomped down all the way into the kitchen. "What did you do to my room?"  
  
"Oh, honey, it's just what the other girls have at your age." Her mother was smiling brilliantly as she stirred soup in a pot on the stove. "I knew you'd like it."  
  
Lily pointed to her frown. "Mum, see the look of intense joy pasted forevermore on my face."  
  
Her mother shrugged. "I'm sorry, sweetheart. But I'm not remodeling again. You'll like it in time." She turned back to her pot. "Oh, I also signed you up for ballet lessons. We want you to know more of life than wizardry."  
  
Lily almost was sick on the floor. "Ballet?"  
  
"Why, yes, darling. A real lady knows how to dance."  
  
Shivering, Lily let go of the chair's back. "Mum, why are you insisting on my becoming proper all of a sudden?"  
  
Her mother waved that aside impatiently. "Oh, Lily, dear, we don't want you to become an oddball like those girls who take up things like wrestling and generally act like no-mannered soldiers. I mean, we want to be proud of our Lily, and…"  
  
Her mother's voice trailed off as a mischievous grin spread over Lily's face. "What?"  
  
"Mum, if I give up ballet, may I take another sport?"  
  
"Why, certainly, hon. As long as you're happy, I'm–what's that?"  
  
Lily had drawn up a short contract on a piece of kitchen note-paper. "Can I have that in writing?"  
  
Her mother laughed, taking it as a joke. "Certainly. Here." She clamped the spoon in between her teeth and took up the pen, pasting it on the refrigerator. Lily immediately removed it and put it in her pocket.  
  
"Why're you doing that?"  
  
"I want my proof. Mum, I'm taking up fencing."  
  
Her mother looked dumbfounded. "You are what?"  
  
"My birthday's in three weeks. I'm asking you for fencing equipment."  
  
"But–but–"  
  
Lily waved the slip of paper in her mother's face. "I have this in writing."  
  
Sighing and slumping her shoulders, Lily's mother sighed. "All right. But don't blame me if you never get married and have to sit at home an old spinster because boys don't like you. You're a smart girl, Lily. That's what we girls do. And don't you want to be rich, married to a millionaire?"  
  
Lily made a noise somewhere between a laugh and a hurling sound. "Mum, this isn't the 1912 years. I am good for other things besides making a family tree, believe it or not."  
  
Two days later, Lily's mother, submitting to Lily and her father, who had maintained that girls who sit around and do their hair all day have no life, had signed Lily up for a fencing class three blocks away and purchased a mask, practice foil, jacket, and glove. Wednesday, Thursday, and Fridays were practice evenings, from five to nine, and her mother was driving her.  
  
"Mum, the car will go faster than ten miles an hour."  
  
"I know–oh, honey, won't you rethink this?"  
  
"Mum, think of this as my taking a very effective self-defense course."  
  
Her mother turned around. "How so?"  
  
"Think about it. If I come to the door with my foil in my hand, do you really think that old man down the street is going to try to make advances?"  
  
"Lily, darling, you're only twelve."  
  
"I know. The other girl down the street who got patted on the stomach by him was eight."  
  
Her mother accelerated. "All right."  
  
Lily leaned back in her chair and smiled. To be honest, she didn't have to use the foil–she'd found out that a butcher knife worked just as well. It usually helped if she had just been cutting meat and there was a bit of raw flesh hanging from the blade…On her birthday, Lily had advanced to the point where she was standing in position naturally, not having to think about it. Some of her old school friends had mentioned the odd way she was standing, knees bent, her left foot one-and-a-half foot-lengths behind the other and the heels perpendicular, the right toe facing forwards and her left foot slightly slanted. It had become second nature for her now. One day, Vernon Dursley, hearing that she was back from boarding school, had been made by his parents to come over and welcome her back. He had found her in her room, practicing feints, parries, and lunges, hitting the foil against a cushioned sort of blue tapestry hanging on one wall, clashing horribly with the pink walls and the white ruffles. Vernon had coughed solemnly, and Lily whirled around. She was still holding the foil.  
  
"Oh, Vernon, hello!" He made a few steps backward. "Hello and welcome back. I hope you enjoy your summer." Vernon turned around, headed for the stairs, and sprinted for the door. He was off of their property so fast that Lily hardly got a glimpse of him through her window as he ran into their mailbox. Lily grinned. "I will!" she shouted as Vernon sped around the corner.  
  
Her birthday morning, she woke up early. Six o'clock early. Tripping over the foil which she hadn't bothered to put away last night ("OW!"), she made it downstairs to the kitchen, which had about six packages lying on the kitchen table. Surprised, Lily went over to check the cards. Usually, her mother and father kept her presents under their bed until they woke up, so she was a bit puzzled. Her face broke into a grin, however, when she saw the wrapping paper. The one on top, besides sporting a card saying "From the queen of the universe, and, luckily for you, your friend, Eva," was wrapped in black paper with ribbons on it that moved and swirled all around the box. Next to Eva's was a gift packed in deep indigo, with lots of cats sleeping in the paper. A slip of parchment said: [To Lily from Miranda], but no card was attached.  
  
Underneath was a package wrapped in blue silky paper, with a small note attached and sealed shut with a wax seal that had a dog stamped into it. Lily turned the sealed card over and over, finally putting it aside, fingering the dog stamped into the wax.  
  
Next to the blue box was a pink present, covered with frilly ribbons and a large bow. On the wrapping, Amanda had written:  
  
I'm sorry about not having a card, but I ransacked the whole darn house and couldn't find a single sheet of parchment. I'll remember to get a card for your next birthday, though. Oh, and this is also from Vanessa. We shared the cost. Hope you like it and have a happy birthday!  
  
P.S: Mine is November 22nd.  
  
Lily grinned. There were two packages left, the most obvious one wrapped by someone who had not had much practice wrapping presents. The card was open and lying on the terra cotta paper with many large smiley faces on them. Lily raised her eyebrows.  
  
"It's a bit obvious who this one's from. Can't Peter even wrap a darn box?" The sides of the box were poking through, and Lily could discern a large C and a smaller H next to it in gold writing. "Probably candy. I've had enough of that to last me a lifetime." She sighed and let her thoughts glide to her trunk, filled with packages of Chocolate Frogs, Fizzing Whizbees, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Toothflossing Stringmints, Exploding Raspberries, Ice Mice, and a few Pepper Imps that Eva and Vanessa had received for finishing their exams from their parents and had shared liberally with the dormitory.  
  
The last present was wrapped with great care, in emerald green paper with small sparkling studs all over it. A note attached to the side, said, in brilliant green ink,  
  
"For you, from James. I hope you'll find this useful–well, actually, I just hope you'll use it so I can see that I'm good at gift-giving."  
  
Lily smiled. Casting a glance up the stairwell and finding it empty of Petunia, she carefully broke the paper off of the wide, thin box.  
  
Once the paper was gone, a flat parchment-colored box presented itself to her. She smiled and broke the Spellotape at each end, lifting the cover off. She cleared the Daily Prophets away that were covering the gift and stood back, mouth open.  
  
Lily bit her tongue until it bled. How could she have been so stupid as to think that he was actually sorry for the way he had behaved? A cold fury building up inside her brain, she knocked the box off of the table and stalked upstairs, hugging her knees as she slid under the covers.  
  
A half-hour later, her lips were also bleeding, and her fury hadn't abated. Lily threw her feet out of bed, picked up her sword, and started stabbing at her tapestry, again and again and again. Not until she had managed to break the tip did she sink down on the floor, white-faced, and drop the sword.  
  
The smell of bacon and pancakes pervaded the house around seven. Finding Lily's door closed and not a sound coming from behind the locked door, she assumed Lily was still asleep. With a relieved face, Lily heard her mother's footsteps retreat down the stairs, then had her clenched fists re- inserted as she heard the whole family tramping up the stairs.  
  
"Happy birthday to you,  
  
'happy birthday to you…"  
  
They knocked at the door, and Lily, not wanting to make her parents angry, opened the door, and, for the first time since she had received James' gift she smiled. Her parents were carrying a large traditional cake with twelve candles on it, but instead of the usual "Happy birthday, Lily," the cake sported a sparkly sort of icing with "To our favorite little witch" on the top.  
  
Close behind her mother was her father, struggling under a load of about ten presents, including the ones from her Hogwarts friends. James', she was happy to note, was not being offered.  
  
The next hour passed in smiles and laughter and lots of confetti, which insisted on settling in Petunia's hair and driving her nuts. When her parents retreated with the wrapping paper mess, Lily was surrounded by her gifts. Peter had given her a bag of Chocolate Frogs, Miranda: a book of "How to get back at Enemies" tricks by Donna Rickett. Remus' present had arrived around six-thirty, by owl express, and turned out to be a humorous collection of the Muggle author P. G. Wodehouse's books: the Jeeves series. Sirius, who had sent the silky blue package with the dog in the wax seal, had included a rather nice stuffed beary dog that went attacking all the Muggles it could find. Sirius had magicked it to attack Petunia, but Lily had set it on Vernon and Petunia. She didn't like Vernon much.  
  
Vanessa and Amanda had given her a wizarding clock they had found in Knockturn Alley: in addition to telling the time, the background was a large map, which told you wherever a certain person was. A slip of parchment had been added, saying that they were not quite sure that this was a legal item to have, but they had thought it was nice. Eva, with her usual sense of pretended superiority, had sent Lily a tiara. It was gold with midnight blue stones, and inside her card Eva had written:  
  
Now, since I know I'm the queen of the universe here, and since you're my best friend, I thought you might want to become the princess. I have a sort of twisted system here; where my friend, not my daughter, becomes my heir. Even if you don't want to rule all of those wretched mortals, the tiara looks nice, doesn't it?"  
  
It did. It certainly did. It reminded her of something, though she wasn't sure what, and she doubted that it was anything very important. Lily leaned back against her pillow and smiled as she remembered Petunia's face as Sirius' dog had jumped out of the box and started to attack her. She was probably still in her room, shaking. Lily grinned blissfully.  
  
It was the middle of July, and Eva had sent a letter asking if Lily would like to come to visit her for tow weeks. Glad to finally get out of the hot and sticky house, Lily had accepted gratefully. Her parents had consented after seeing how much nicer their environment would be without Petunia throwing fits every time Lily started mumbling meaningless "Abrakadabra's" under her breath. She was leaving that afternoon, as soon as Eva and Vanessa's parents got out of a Ministry of Magic meeting so they could take her over. Scheduled to come at three o'clock, Lily waited impatiently for the hour hand to move from two to three.  
  
She was sitting in her room, searching it with her eyes for any stray article that she might need. Catching sight of her fish tank, she jumped up and ran to her trunk, pulling out a quill and a slip of parchment.  
  
Mum,  
  
Please feed my fish. The neon striped one gets three flakes a day, the tropical ones get four each.  
  
Lily  
  
She propped it against the fish tank and sighed, remembering the most interesting fish she had seen in Diagon Alley. They sported gigantic flowing tails in different colors and emitted bubbles that formed words. Still, the reason that Lily was not in possession of one was that they were poisonous and that her mother didn't feel like spending two Galleons, seventeen Sickles for one fish.  
  
Yawning, Lily looked up at the clock again. Two-fifteen.  
  
"Have I forgotten anything?"  
  
Her eyes fell on Remus' present, and she remembered what James had given her. "Should I show Eva that? I think she could tell me what to think." Brooding on whether or not to take the package over to her friend's house, a whooshing in the room caught her unawares and almost knocked her off of her bed. She shook her head several times and found the room full of two familiar faces, ones that she had seen at Platform nine and three-quarters.  
  
Eva and Vanessa's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Doylen, were standing in the middle of the room, smiling toothily.  
  
"Well, come on, dear. Are these your things? Nigel, get them for her. Lily, dear, we won't be able to let you say goodbye. We're late as it is."  
  
Lily pulled the package form James and nodded. "I'll owl Mum and Dad. I'm ready."  
  
They smiled. "Ready? All right–go!" With a swirl of wind, they were off, each of them holding tightly to Lily's arm. A tiny bit windblown, Lily and Mr. and Mrs. Doylen arrived in the entrance hall of a large mansion. It was huge; almost half the size of the entrance hall at Hogwarts. Covered in thick scarlet carpets, draped with silk and velvet draperies and dotted with many old family portraits, the old hall looked amazing.  
  
"Eva! 'Nessa! I've brought Lily. See you for supper!" And with a whoosh, the two adults were gone, leaving Lily's trunk behind on the floor.  
  
Lily heard thumps from the floor above, and seconds later, Eva's face appeared on the landing. "Lily!" She raced down the stairs and hugged her friend, both of them ecstatic. "I'm so glad you could come. You don't know how boring summer is with only Vanessa and Basil here. Come on up!" Each of them took a handle of Lily's trunk and headed for the large moving part of the landing that lifted them up to the third floor.  
  
Lily set her trunk down and sat down on it. "Basil?"  
  
Eva nodded glumly. "He's my older brother. He left Hogwarts the year we left, and he's got all of his friends staying here in the spare bedrooms." She grimaced. "He's invited about seven of them over, along with a few of their siblings."  
  
Lily nodded. "Oh. Do we know any of the siblings?"  
  
Eva looked a bit edgy. "You do, but–well, "I'll let you meet it later."  
  
"It?"  
  
"It's an it. C'mon, this is the floor." Stepping off of the elevator, the carpet of which had changed from scarlet to a royal blue to match the carpet on that floor, they went into the fourth door on the right of a long hallway with many branches and other hallways. The room they came into was the sort of room Petunia would have loved to usurp, and even Lily liked it.  
  
Like the rest of the floor, the carpet was royal blue, but the huge mahogany four-poster in the corner of the room, near the stained-glass window was surrounded in dark blue hangings, tied back with pale blue silk ribbons. On the floors were several gold rugs intertwined with gold threads to form patterns, and the mahogany Queen Anne vanity along one of the walls had a flowing dark blue silk skirt. The window-seat was covered in velvet carpet to match the floor, and on it a black-and-white two-year-old cat was snoozing, blissfully enjoying a warm breeze. Eva's trunk stood in the corner, next to a library of Eva's favorite books: fiction and fantasy stories set in an elaborately carved mahogany bookcase. Lily quickly retrieved her jaw. Eva looked a bit worried. "Don't you like it? This one's mine, but I wanted you to meet Willoughby." She picked up the slinky cat and put him in Lily's arms. "Willoughby, meet Lily. Lily, this is my cat. He likes to be scratched under the chin, off to the right," she added as she drew the dark blue silk curtains open.  
  
Lily set her trunk down. "This is the most magnificent place I've ever been in."  
  
Eva smiled, then flinched as she ripped the pale blue silk ribbon off of the hook that enabled the curtains to stay tied. "That always happens. Thanks, though."  
  
Willoughby, purring, sprang down from Lily's lap and curled up in his previous place in the sunshine on the window seat as Eva started to drag the trunk through one of three adjoining doors. Lily, wishing that cats had no claws, picked up the other end of the trunk. They came to a winding staircase, carpeted with royal blue that slowly faded into green as they let the stair-case carry them up about twenty feet. The room they came out in was almost like Eva's, only done in millions of shades of green, from the dark green silk surrounding the teak four-poster to the stained-glass window, done in the shape of the Rose windows in the cathedral Notre Dame in Paris. Lily's mouth was open again.  
  
"This–this is my room?"  
  
Eva giggled. "Of course. Do you like it?"  
  
Lily stared at her friend. "Do I like this? I've had to live with white and pink ruffles for the last few weeks. Your–your house is amazing!"  
  
Eva tossed her head. "Well, of course. I do live in it, after all. Would the Queen of the Universe be satisfied with anything else?"Eva helped Lily to unpack, as did Vanessa who came rushing up a few seconds later. Lily was relieved to see that they were all wearing Muggle clothing; she had been afraid that she was going to look oddly out of place. When they came to James' present, both of them stopped and looked quizzically at Lily, who had carefully avoided that box.  
  
"What's this?"  
  
"What's what? Oh, that. James gave it to me for my birthday. I wanted to know from both of you what I should do."  
  
"What is it?"  
  
Lily sighed. "Open the box."  
  
Vanessa reached it first and started burrowing through the Daily Prophets, coming up with a sheet of parchment, laid on top of a smaller box that had been inside. "'I hope you will use this next year. You really should.' What's this?"  
  
Lily scowled. "Open the box. The second one." She watched with hard eyes as Eva lifted the top off of the second box and gasped.  
  
She had uncovered a beautiful teak casket, inlaid with gold settings. Vanessa undid the clasp and peered inside, drawing back almost as soon as she saw the contents.  
  
"Lily, tell him to go jump in the lake."  
  
"Or better, slap him a couple of times. That should sober his smart self down." 


	11. The summer at Eva's mansion

"I thought of that. But how am I going to get hold of him before I stop being quite as angry as I am now?"  
  
"Erm…" Eva kicked the floor nervously–"That won't be so hard."'  
  
Lily raised her defensive eyebrow. "Stop it. You're not in tap class. Why not?"  
  
"Er–you remember when I told you that we had an 'it' and his sibling here?"  
  
Lily sat down on the bed. "So?"  
  
Vanessa picked Willoughby up, who had followed the smell of Lily's Owl Treats. "Well, the 'it' is Peter Pettigrew."  
  
Comprehension started to dawn on Lily's stunned countenance. "And?"  
  
Eva played a bit with the beautiful teak brush, inlaid with gold, that had been in the casket. Nervously, she fingered the mirror, made in the same way, and the delicate shampoo bottles. "Well, you know Peter never goes anywhere without his friends."  
  
Lily pushed the millions of cases of lipstick, eyeshadow, blush, and hundreds of other things out of Eva's reach. "I know. Get to the point."  
  
Eva fidgeted, picking at the green silk sheets. "Well–to make a short story shorter, Sirius, James, and Remus are staying in three of the Scarlet rooms downstairs."  
  
She looked at Vanessa with a question in her eyes. "Should I have said that?"  
  
Lily was sitting on the edge of the bed, burying her angry face in her knees. "You should not have said that." Eva groaned. "I thought so."  
  
Jumping off of the floor, Vanessa sped out of the door, the sounds of laughter, boys' laughter, coming from the floor below.  
  
Lily turned to Eva. "When did he arrive?"  
  
Eva shrugged. "About five hours ago. Don't worry," she added, seeing Lily's suspicious face, "I didn't invite him. Peter did."  
  
Lily walked over to the window-seat, pushing the drapes aside as well as opening the stained-glass window, and stared out over the neatly trimmed lawns. She stood there for so long that Eva went over to her, quietly, and touched her on the arm. Lily flinched as if she had just been shot. "What?"  
  
"Are you sure you're all right?"  
  
"Positive." Lily snapped. "Oh, honestly, Eva, I just don't want to see him after this present. Can't you see that?"  
  
Eva sighed. "Have I ruined your whole summer for you?"  
  
Lily regained some of her old mischievous grin. "Me, let that git spoil my summer here, when I'm away from Petunia, ruffles, and here in this magnificent mansion? Along with you and Eva? Oh, is that a swimming pool there, beyond that sculptured planter?" she asked, pointing to a glimmer beyond a carved hedge.  
  
Eva grinned, too. "I've got an extra suit!"  
  
Lily beat Eva down to the stairway. "I'm already halfway there!"  
  
Relieved, Eva followed. Dressed in a pale blue one-piece, with a short white skirt around her waist, Eva walked out to the pool with Lily, their bare feet pressing comfortably against the neatly trimmed grass. Lily wasn't too happy with the color she had been stuck with; she had been poured into a white suit and was looking a bit disgruntled at the choice of towels. Their maids had taken most of the towels to be cleaned, and the only ones left were pale lavender. But she had tied it around her waist, thrown her pants and wand into her trunk, and beat Vanessa to the humongous Acropolian back porch, covered in forest green carpeting and dotted with about twenty cream-colored tables and chairs, each set with a linen tablecloth, several crystal glasses, and a beautiful pitcher of lemonade.  
  
The swimming pool was marvelous. The basin alone was made of stone, with delicate statues at every corner. Several chairs were placed on the sides, and the water was a clear blue unknown to Muggle pools. No chlorine pervaded the water, as Lily blissfully discovered after diving in; it was kept magically clean.  
  
One side sported three diving boards, each feathering lightly and perfectly, each pedestal a carved masterpiece. Lily, who her whole life had practically lived in the water each summer, was in her own Eden. Racing Eva and Vanessa to the other side of the pool, she was in front of them by about six feet when a loud splash hit her arms and knocked her under water. Spluttering, she came up, fuming at a certain raven-haired, tousle-headed demon. His eyes blinked mischievously as he looked on her angry, coughing countenance. "Oh, oops, sorry, didn't see you."  
  
Lily glared. "Of course you didn't." Her temper getting out of control, she pulled her hands out of the water and reached for James, who veered backwards. "What the–"  
  
His exclamation was drowned as Lily pushed him underwater, hard, and held him there for a couple of seconds. When she finally let him up, he dove for the side of the pool, coughing up mouthfuls of water. Sirius and Remus helped him out, fighting back laughter.  
  
"James, I hate to say this, but you earned that."  
  
He looked wild. "Earned what? That girl almost drowned me!"  
  
Lily was treading water, peals of laughter echoing from her mouth. "Oh, I'm a girl now? Not a random Muggle and not an electrocuted pheonix?"  
  
James scowled at her. "Evans, shut your big fat mouth."  
  
Lily climbed onto the diving board and looked down on him, leaning on the carved stone rail, the wide, ridiculing smile still fixed on her face. "Why should I?"  
  
He stood up, throwing his towel into the pool. "Because I said so, that's why!"  
  
Diving into the water, Lily came up and shook her wet curls away from her face. "Oh, really. And who died and made you God?"  
  
He retrieved his sopping wet towel from where it was sinking to the bottom of the pool. "Evans, I'm going to say this again. Shut up or else."  
  
"You never said it the first time. I did."  
  
"Oh, shut up."  
  
Eva broke in, laughing. "James, you're losing this round."  
  
"Oh, really?" He removed his glasses and kicked Peter aside. "I'm winning the next one." He dived into the pool, straight at Lily and Eva. Coming up behind them, he grabbed both of their feet and rose to the surface, dunking them several times. Eva fought wildly, but Lily let herself be dunked until the third time. Then, when she was being lifted up for air, she pulled her feet back a bit and kicked forward.  
  
Hearing a groan of pain come from James, she propelled herself forward, using James as a makeshift side of the pool, and reached the other side, getting out before the blood from James' nose reached her. Eva was sitting on one of the adjustable lawn chairs, holding her stomach and collapsing with laughter as they saw James swim to the edge and hold his hands out to Remus and Sirius.  
  
"Help me out!"  
  
Both of them drew back, not wanting to come any closer to his blood- drenched form. Remus was fighting back a comment, which did him no good, as Sirius said it for him.  
  
"James, you just got the guts beat out of you by a girl."  
  
"That's not a girl. That's a demon."  
  
Lily was lying on a lawn chair on her stomach, lazily raising her head. "Funny. I thought the same thing about you when you jumped on me."  
  
Eva had covered herself with a towel. "James, you were right. You didn't win this round. Next one, maybe. Not this one." Shaking her head, the wife of the pool's caretaker trotted out of her small house with wet cloths and a wand, tutting and fussing. She pointed her wand and James and the pool, and instantly, the blood was gone and his nose stopped bleeding. Holding the cloth against James' forehead, she forbade him to get in the pool or even off of the lawn chair for the next five minutes, then clamped her wand under her arm and went trotting back inside her lodge, muttering about dangerous games.  
  
By the time the five minutes were up, Lily, Eva, and Vanessa had judged it wise to leave. They had run back to the mansion, which, Lily now noticed, was structured in the style of a cross between a beautiful castle and the Chateau de Versailles, using the good points of each. Eva had swiped a crystal pitcher filled with lemonade and three glasses, and they were sitting in Lily's room, because it was in a tower and they could seal the door. Willoughby had migrated to Lily's window-seat, but it was so large that it could have held about five people, the window being so large, so Lily, Eva, and Vanessa had seated themselves around the sleepy cat.  
  
"Lily, I'd say you paid him back for that present."  
  
"You definitely did. I was laughing so hard, I–"  
  
"Fell off of the lawn chair. I know."  
  
"Oh, shut up. C'mere, Willoughby. Does Willy like lemonade? Come, Willy, see if you like this. Come on–" Willy pushed his nose into the sparkling gold liquid in Eva's glass and snorted out a sneeze, spraying lemonade all over the three friends.  
  
Lily wiped a drop off of her cheek. "Willy does not like lemonade."  
  
Eva refilled her glass. "I noticed."  
  
Vanessa pointed out to the lawn, where four figures were racing towards the house. "They're coming back."  
  
Eva groaned. "Come to take their revenge?"  
  
Lily smiled. "They may try."  
  
Vanessa leaped up and followed Lily over to her trunk. "Lil, we're not supposed to use magic! Not during the holidays! You could be expelled–what's that?" she asked, puzzled, as Lily drew out her foil. "A sword?"  
  
Lily nodded, pulling on her black Hogwarts robes and pointing her sword at the door. "Exactly."  
  
They had no more time to talk, as they heard a stampede downstairs. Lily quickly unscrewed the tip, letting the sharp end of a screw point towards the boys, who were blockading the doorway.  
  
They stopped dead in their tracks as they saw a long bit of metal pointed straight at them. Peter was edging downstairs, pulling Remus with him. Lily, in her dark robes, holding a sword, was the very image of a Crusader of the old days. She looked dangerous as her eyes turned hard and received a perilous glitter. Peter was rushing out of Eva's room downstairs.  
  
James was the first to speak. "Evans, put that down. You don't know how to handle that." He folded his arms over his chest and resembled every bit a Southern plantation overseer, ordering his subordinates about.  
  
Lily, with the dignity of a queen, looked down on him, with a sneer on her face. "Oh, really? What makes you think I can't handle a sword?"  
  
"Well, for one thing, girls can't fence. They can't even control the thing."  
  
"Oh?" With a flick of the wrist and a twitch of the sword, Lily disarmed James of his wand before he knew what she was about. It flew out of the window as neatly as if she had just disarmed him with her wand. "You're right. Of course I can't control it. How stupid of me to think I could ever have stood up against you, O High and Mighty One, when thou wast holding thine wand." Eva peered out of the window. "James, your wand's on the top of the dining room roof!" James' scorn turned a bit to admiration. "You don't think you can teach me that?"  
  
"Teach you how to do what?"  
  
"Well, use a sword. I'd like to learn. I could beat Snape and Malfoy up, for one thing." Lily raised her chin. "So, you've been hideous to me ever since the last Quidditch match of the year, and now, out of nowhere, you expect me to be nice to you and teach you to fence? Potter, out of my room." Flourishing her foil, Lily drove him out of her room backwards and kicked the door shut. "Well, that's one problem solved." Vanessa left her seat on the bed. "Lily, I have to say, that was really good!"  
  
"Of course it was. I've spent my summer doing nothing else."  
  
Eva filled up Lily's glass. "I can tell–wait, what's that?" "What's what?" Lily and Vanessa raced to the window. Outside, whizzing towards her window, three flecks were flying, rapidly turning darker and larger as they approached the window. Moving aside quickly, Lily caught all three letters that the owls dropped, each bearing the Hogwarts crest. "Our end-of-term marks! Look!" They ripped their respective envelopes open and pulled out their sheets. Lily's was a bit longer and thicker than her friends'.  
  
Dear Miss Evans,  
  
As you will see from your enclosed marks, your average grade following the exams is one hundred and seven percent. We shall be pleased to promote you to the third year at Hogwarts at your returning. Enclosed is also a form that will give you several choices as to which new classes you will be taking next year. Please fill out the form and return it by no later than July 15th.  
  
Sincerely,  
  
Professor M. McGonagall  
  
Enclosed, Lily found two pieces of parchment, one with her marks on it and the other with the list of subjects. Smiling so hard she thought her teeth would start to crinkle and fall out, Lily handed the letter to her friends.  
  
"Lily, that's amazing!" Eva and Vanessa hugged her tightly. "I just hope you'll help us with studying next year.  
  
Lily sniffed. "Is that your first reaction?"  
  
Vanessa giggled. "Well sort of. My second reaction is what are you going to do when you're in the same classes as James and Sirius next year?"  
  
Slipping her Hogwarts robes off and placing them in her trunk along with her foil, Lily laughed. "I wish I could see their faces when I show up in practically every one of their classes! Actually, I will see their faces, won't I?"  
  
Eva shook her head. "I know. I'm terribly jealous. But you won't forget us little second years, will you?"  
  
"I don't know. I'll try not to miss seeing every single ant when I'm up high floating on an asteroid–I'm joking, honestly!"  
  
Vanessa drew back her fist. "I wouldn't have hit you, but thanks for retracting that."  
  
Later that night at dinner, Lily could see why she had been invited to stay. Basil, their brother, had invited about ten older boys, some of whom had brought their siblings, all of whom had brought friends. The large dining table, used to seat seventy people at a sitting, was filled up completely. Not one of the guests were girls.  
  
The dinner itself was as amazing as the house was marvelous, and there were seven maids in crisp, starched aprons, serving at table. Every possible kind of food had been placed on the table, and it was surprising to Lily to see how fast it all vanished. Eva and Vanessa seemed resigned to the quick disappearance of the food, however, and made up for it by inviting Lily to Vanessa's room after dinner and ordering up some food from the three house- elves that served in the kitchen and around the house. Their parents hadn't showed up for dinner, and after dispatching a quick note to her own parents, Lily had followed her friends gladly to their after-dinner dinner. Vanessa's room was almost like Eva's, being on the same floor and therefore having the same carpeting, but it was a bit more cluttered and had two more windows. Her room was connected to Eva's through a grandly large bathroom, which had been done in many different shades of blue, so they were able to drag Eva's large dark blue velvet couch into Vanessa's room.  
  
After a dinner that was, if not as magnificent in scale, at least as good in content as the one downstairs, they were discussing the events of that day. Vanessa still fell to the floor giggling when she thought back to the pool and Lily's almost breaking James' nose.  
  
"He looked so stunned, honestly! As if he expected you to let him drown you!"  
  
"Well, what can you say? He's a big stuck-up git who's never had anyone say no to him before, plus he's dreadfully spoiled and needs to be hit several times and more than I did."  
  
Eva looked at Lily in amazement. "You know, you're the first girl I've ever heard talk like that about him; they're all going on about how adorable he is and how wonderful he is at Quidditch."  
  
Lily tossed her hair over her shoulder. "Well, he needs to be told that."  
  
Vanessa gave a short laugh. "And I suppose you're going to be the one to do it?"  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"I'll tell you why not. Because he's already heard." Reveling in the squealing of the blond twins, James stepped out from behind the door."  
  
Immediately on the defensive, Lily's eyes narrowed. "And what are you doing here?" she asked, pronouncing 'you' with a disgusted hiss.  
  
"Well, listening to you three talk. It's extremely interesting to listen to people talking about me."  
  
"What's your point?"  
  
"I don't exactly have one, to tell you the truth."  
  
"Of course. Well, to make it simpler for your most simple intellect, what are you doing in a girl's bedroom?"  
  
He flinched a bit. "Only you would think of it that way."  
  
"I know. Anything else?"  
  
He moved away from the door and sat down on the floor, looking at Lily questioningly. ""Yeah–I wanted to ask why you're being so mean?"  
  
Lily's eyes opened wide. "Me–and mean? What about you?"  
  
Eva and Vanessa, who were looking rather uncomfortable, had finished a silent struggle for the empty food tray and were both carrying it out of the room, trying not to be obvious. They didn't succeed.  
  
"What do you mean, what about me? You started this whole thing!"  
  
"You're a very bad liar. After that Quidditch match the first thing you did was insult the way I looked."  
  
"Oh–I'd forgotten about that. Oops."  
  
Lily reseated herself on the couch and picked up her lemonade, taking small sips and staring into nowhere, thinking.  
  
"What're you thinking about?"  
  
"Hum? Oh–nothing–James, I'm not sure if you realized this, but the only reason I stopped sleeping on knobby curlers was because I wanted to find out who really liked me for who I am. And I guess I found out."  
  
"What–You were refusing to make your hair look decent!"  
  
James Potter, I did not give up brushing my hair. However, I stopped using curlers and hairspray. All I cared about was my grades, and I couldn't very well concentrate on those if I spent my time in front of a mirror."  
  
"You just sounded like a book. That was scary. Don't ever do that again."  
  
"Oh, so now you're telling me how not to sound? I'm not your subordinate and I never will be."  
  
"You will be. When I get out of Hogwarts I'll fix it so that wherever I decide to work I'll be your boss."  
  
Lily smiled. She'd forgotten all about her letter from Hogwarts. "You won't have enough time."  
  
"How so?"  
  
"I'm leaving Hogwarts with you."  
  
James looked a bit shocked and disgusted, not to mention puzzled. "You're not eloping with me, if that's what you mean. Right now I'd rather elope with Malfoy."  
  
"Don't worry. That was farthest from my mind. I meant what I said, and what I meant was that I'm going to be graduating at the same time you are."  
  
Smirking to see the both horrified and interested expressions that floated across his face, Lily drained her glass.  
  
"What's the face for?"  
  
"Do you mean to tell me that you're skipping second year?"  
  
"Exactly."  
  
"Why? If it's just to be closer to me, it's not going to work."  
  
Lily bit her tongue, counting to ten backwards, but she exploded before she reached five. "You are nothing but a stuck-up git, and if you think that I'd even dream of skipping so that I could be with you–I've wanted to do this for a long time. Stand up." James was rather puzzled, but he stood up anyway and crossed his arms over his chest, trying to look invincible, tough, and cute as Lily came walking towards him, twisting a strand of hair around her finger. Ten inches away from him, she stopped, looking quite embarrassed and uncomfortable, not to mention that she was blushing a bit. Not a bit--more than a bit. He looked straight into her forest green eyes, then closed them a second later as she did something unthinkable. He reeled onto the carpet, holding his bright red jaw, cheek, and ear in pain. "WHAT'D YOU DO THAT FOR?" he roared as soon as he could open his eyes. The first thing he saw was Lily, who had knelt down on the floor, holding her stomach in ecstasy. She was laughing so hard she thought she'd split in two, her hair falling in her face and her eyes tearing.  
  
"James, you idiot, what on earth did you think I'd do?"  
  
"You almost broke my jaw!"  
  
"You mean I didn't? Oh, how terribly clumsy of me! I'll be sure to break it next time, though, don't worry."  
  
His eyes widened and he sprang up, knocking a small table over in his hurry to get out.  
  
Lily regained enough possession of herself to get to the door and watch James dash down the hallway, tripping over Remus' outstretched leg fifty yards down  
  
Lily was only standing upright with the help of the doorframe, so Sirius had to catch her as he came up right beside her and poked her in the side, making her fall.  
  
"Sirius Black, what the heck do you think you're doing?"  
  
"I thought I'd congratulate you. He needed to be slapped."  
  
"And how did you know what I did? Were you also behind the door?"  
  
Sirius opened his eyes wide. "You mean he was spying on you? Double congratulations!"  
  
"So you heard me slap him? Criminey, I didn't know I hit him that hard."  
  
"Oh, please, Lily." He set her back on her feet. "We could hear that all down this hall and then some. And if we hadn't heard your slap, we'd definitely have heard James' scream. Peter's still on the floor laughing. He deserved that big time. And, by the way, what did he give you for your birthday? He never told us, but he said it was expensive and mean."  
  
"Ah. It was. He gave me a nice teak chest inlaid with gold, with lots of makeup cases and shampoo and all sorts of things. Plus a brush and a mirror. I say he deserved his slap seven times over."  
  
"Well, all I have to say right now is congratulations. From me, Peter, Sirius, and the rest of the world."  
  
"Why, thank you."  
  
"Say–you're not mad at me because he's been lousy, are you?"  
  
Quizzically, Lily stared into his dark eyes, then laughed. "Of course not."  
  
He looked relieved and smiled too. "Oh, good. Say,–you wouldn't want to come down to Peter's room downstairs? We're playing Exploding Snap–want to come?"  
  
Lily beamed. "Sure." Lily walked into Peter's room to a storm of applause, while Sirius was walking ahead of her, shooing imaginary people away–"Miss Evans is not going to give autographs at this point in time–she shall be happy to later in the evening after she has been presented with her trophy, please do not crowd the conqueress just yet…"  
  
Besides Peter, half of the second year Gryffindor boys seemed to be in the room, all applauding and banging on the floor with their fists, trying not to choke on excessive hiccuping laughter.  
  
"Way to go, Evans!"  
  
"Did you really hit him? We heard that all down the corridor."  
  
"You rule, girl! Do that to Snape and Malfoy and we will forever be your slaves!"  
  
"So, are you two friends again, now that you've gotten your revenge?"  
  
"Lily has too much sense for that. I mean, wouldn't you?"  
  
The rest of the evening passed rather pleasantly, with several stacks of cards exploding in Peter's face as he dropped them and providing an unending source of entertainment as he jumped around, trying to get the sparks out of his hair.  
  
All too soon, the two weeks and the extension Lily got of three weeks were over, and her mother wanted her back home. The rest of the summer brought nothing new besides the letter from Hogwarts with her supply list on it. Her parents had an international meeting in Berlin, so it worked out that Lily was to go to Diagon Alley with her parents on August first and get a room at the Leaky Cauldron, her parents leaving her there in the care of Amanda's parents, who had also rented a room there.  
  
Lily was waving goodbye to her parents, who were rapidly disappearing down the road in a taxi in a cloud of dust, when she felt a fist connect with her spine.  
  
Lily fell forward onto the street, skinning her hands and knees. Not wasting an instant of time, she jumped up and raised her fists.  
  
"James Potter, what on earth did you do that for?"  
  
He shrugged, smirking. "Payback."  
  
Lily dropped her balled hands. "All right, then I guess I deserved that. But why're you here?"  
  
"Why do you think? I'm getting my supplies. I'd ask you what you were doing here, but you have a very talkative friend."  
  
"I see. Amanda?"  
  
"Exactly. Say, you want to come to Flourish and Blotts with us?"  
  
"Us?"  
  
"Yeah, Sirius and Remus. Peter's got a sick aunt, so he's in Russia, but the rest of us're here. So, what do you say?"  
  
Dusting herself off, Lily walked towards the Leaky Cauldron without saying a word. James followed at a bit of a jog.  
  
"Say, what'd I do?"  
  
"Do?" 


	12. Meet Tom Riddle

"Yeah, you just walked off and left. You're doing it right now, as a matter of fact."  
  
They were inside the small pub by now and Lily was ascending the stairs. James caught her sleeve and held her back.  
  
"Really, I mean it, what did I do?"  
  
"You get one guess. Let me go, Potter." She tried to twist out of his grip, but he didn't let go. "I said, let me go!"  
  
She heard steps on the stairs above her, climbing down the narrow stairway.  
  
"Oh, good, Sirius. Get your friend to let me go, will you?"  
  
"Sirius, tell me what I did wrong. I came up behind her in the street and tried to talk, but she got all huffy and won't talk to me. Talk to me here."  
  
Lily turned around and glared at him. "That might have something to do with the insignificant fact that you punched me in the back. Not counting that my hands are bleeding. Potter, for the last time, get off of me!"  
  
Sirius came the rest of the way down the stairs. "You know, James, she has a point." He detached Lily's sleeve and turned to her. "Say, Lily, since you're gonna be in our year, want to come shop for our things with us?"  
  
Lily tilted her head to one side and stopped at the top of the stairs. "Sure, why not!" And with that, she turned into her room, grabbed her money, and headed back down, missing James' completely nonplussed glare as she and Sirius went out the back doorway. "Hey, Lily, what new subjects're you taking this year?" Sirius was trying to stuff all of his books into one bag at Flourish and Blotts.  
  
"Oh…" Lily glanced at her list. "Divination and the Study of Ancient Runes. What about you?"  
  
"Well, James, Remus, Peter, and I all signed up for the same things–we're also in Divination, and–oh, wait, I forgot–James and Remus signed up for Care of Magical Creatures, but Peter's in Advanced Astronomy and I'm taking the Study of Ancient Runes. Say–I'll be in all of your classes!"  
  
Lily nodded. "You will, won't you. You know–since you know what to get for my classes, could you get my things? I'll pay you back as soon as I get away from Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor–there's a long line and it's getting hot outside. Do you mind?"  
  
He smiled. "As long as you save me a spot in line. I'm not waiting that long, either."  
  
Lily tossed her hair over her shoulder as she swung out of the shop. "Of course!"  
  
Thirty minutes later, there were only five people left in line for the counter, and Sirius was walking in the door. He took his place next to Lily, who tugged at his sleeve.  
  
"Sirius!"  
  
He bent down, for she was whispering. "What?"  
  
"I've never been here before. What do you suggest?"  
  
"Never been–never mind. Try Beheaded Raspberry."  
  
"Beheaded what?"  
  
"Combination of raspberry sherbet, raspberry ice cream, those Exploding Raspberries, and then there's a real one stuck on top, just with the green stuff gone."  
  
"Green stuff?"  
  
"Come off it, don't you know what–oh, yeah, right, you've never been here–these are huge and have t with t h o r n y leaves. Sorry about that. leaves. Try it."  
  
"And I suppose what you mean is that the thorns are gone."  
  
He banged his fist on the counter, attracting the attention of a sleepy clerk. "Exactly. All right, she'd like a Beheaded Raspberry sundae–-make that a large with that creamy stuff on top, and I'm having…oh, gimme a Mocha Swirl Deluxe with the dancing mice on top…"  
  
The sun was blazing down on the red-and-white striped umbrella covering Lily, Sirius, and Remus, who had joined them with an account of Malfoy slipping on a melted Ice Mouse in the joke shop, knocked into a shelf, and ended with a smoky, scorched robe and a ruined joke shop. Sirius was a bit upset.  
  
"That git ruined the whole blazing shop? Can't he even walk right?"  
  
"Oh, it's Pink. And Loopy. Who're you?–oh, that's right, the Evans girl." A slow, drawling voice was coming from behind Sirius. Malfoy was there, his white-blond hair still plastered to his head and his robes, which, though they had stopped smoking, were black and ashy. Sirius and Remus stood up, knocking their chairs over. Lily remained seated.  
  
"What's the matter, boys? Can't take a bit of teasing?"  
  
Lily shaded her eyes. "What's wrong, Malfoy, forgot that fires aren't to be walked into?"  
  
Malfoy turned a bit rosy, gave her an expression somewhat between a glare and a smirk, and swished away, pulling Snape with him, who had been standing in the shade of the umbrella. Sirius and Remus, after throwing bits of mud at them, reseated themselves, beaming at Lily.  
  
"Way to go, Lil!"  
  
"She actually made him turn red!"  
  
"He doesn't know that you're going to be sharing Potions with him, does he?"  
  
"He's not going to be ecstatic about that, I can tell you!"  
  
"I know, that nasty, jinxing git!"  
  
Unknown to any of them, James had walked up quietly behind the group.  
  
"He almost killed you last year, didn't he?"  
  
"I don't know. I'm really glad you're not mad at me, because if you were, I might as well commit suicide right now!"  
  
"Why so?"  
  
"She owns a sword, idiot!"  
  
"Oh, right. Lily, you might try teaching me how to handle that, because I'd like to hit him several times, too."  
  
"Sure, why not. He deserves to be hit."  
  
James' eyes were filled with hurt as he heard his two best friends talking about someone who sounded suspiciously like him. The next remark solidified the suspicion in his mind.  
  
"But he really does need to do something with that hair of his. I mean to say–that is just disgusting, don't you think?"  
  
"Definitely. I'm a girl, of course I'm going to think that's terrible. I wonder what I'd make him do with it, though? Besides the obvious, of course."  
  
James looked down at his feet, the apology he'd been meaning to give Lily shoved brutally out of his mind.  
  
He slowly turned around, dragged his feet silently out of Diagon Alley, and locked himself in his room, listening to the feet thumping up the stairs.  
  
It hadn't been hard for Lily to notice that James was missing, as he usually never strayed ten feet from his friends, except, of course, when he was playing Quidditch. She wondered what was up, and kept thinking back to that afternoon, wondering if she had hurt him in some way. The whole rest of her stay at the Leaky Cauldron, though filled with unwanted jinxes and taunts from Snape and Malfoy, was empty of James. She had glimpsed him once, when he was taking Floo powder to Fraeden Square, but she didn't follow him, getting the impression he didn't want to be followed.  
  
They got to King's Cross by way of Amanda's parents, who had volunteered their minivan. Sirius, Remus, James, and Lily were to ride with them, along with, of course, Amanda. James, obviously trying to avoid everyone, had seated himself in the back, taking up the seat next to him with his trunk and owl, then buried himself in a book.  
  
The others had by now seated themselves in the van, Amanda sitting in the seat James had left free and the three others in the three seats in front of him. Alisande was looking rather worried as the van started.  
  
Sirius, who had placed himself next to Lily, had immediately turned around, trying to disengage James' attention from Quidditch Through the Ages. Stubbornly, James kept moving the book in front of Sirius' face, blocking his own face.  
  
Sirius gave up, blowing out his breath with a sigh. He reached over the back of the seats and pulled the book away from James, who had not been expecting this. Sirius stashed the book under the front seat and stared quizzically at his friend.  
  
"James, you've been really quiet and been avoiding us ever since the day Lil arrived. What's wrong, man?"  
  
James stared fixedly at his lap. "I'd have thought that by now you'd have figured out that I'm not speaking to you."  
  
"I'm not stupid. But why not? Did I do something wrong when I got you offa Lily? It's the only thing I can think of."  
  
James' mouth was open, and he was resembling a gaping fish. "You honestly don't remember?"  
  
"Remember what?"  
  
"You are, too stupid!" The van stopped and James climbed over several pairs of legs in his hurry to get out. "Good riddance."  
  
Confused, puzzled, and not a little disturbed, the four climbed out of the van, walked through the barrier, managing not to knock over any owls, and got on the train, in search of James. They found Snape and Malfoy.  
  
Sirius was the first to speak. "Outta my way, Lucy!"  
  
"Pink, you're asking for it."  
  
"No, I didn't. I only told you to move. Nowhere in there did I mention a defined request."  
  
"Looking for your buddy, are you?"  
  
Sirius shook his head. "Lucy, it's nice that you've got your own television show, but you've got a husband in there, so stop looking for your own outside of filming."  
  
Malfoy frowned. "Since when am I a star?"  
  
"You're not. No one watches 'I Love Lucy' anymore. Move."  
  
Malfoy narrowed his eyes, squinting at Sirius. Lily had had enough of this, so at the time Snape and Malfoy reached for their wands, she stepped forward, pushing Sirius back.  
  
She remembered a tactic she had used with bullies at Muggle school. Eyes wide, she shook her hair back and looked squarely at Malfoy, not blinking, imitating unknowingly the deep, lidless stare of the elf-nymph. Her vision blurred, then, after a split second, she felt the earth sink under her and everything grow black.  
  
Unwillingly, Lily felt herself fall downwards, landing in something familiar.  
  
She shook herself several times, then, not a little frightened, she opened her eyes. This time, she was floating deep in the dewy ocean, with no solid as far as her eyes could reach. Floundering helplessly in the breathable substance, she tried to make her way up. Her arms, though very helpful in regular water, were no use at all now. She rose not an inch towards the surface.  
  
Discouraged, she tried to sink down. She only succeeded, however, to drop a few inches, so, plainly, she was sort of stuck. Lily shook her head, trying not to scream.  
  
"I'm fine. I'll be fine. I'm all right. I'm not going to die–SOMEONE HELP ME!" Gasping in fright, she closed her eyes and let her head sink onto her chest, trying to avoid panicking. But she still jumped a foot into the air when she felt a light touch on her arm.  
  
Lily whirled around. Beside her was an unknown face, yet rather familiar. It had the snake-shaped eyes, the unnaturally long fingers, and the crescent-moon silvery whiteness of its skin was a reminder of the elf- nymph. Still, the silvery locks were replaced by jet-black hair, tousled, somewhat like James', Lily thought. He–for Lily figured it was a he–had no fish-tail, and his nails were a regular pinkish color, white at the tips. He was more normal than anything than she had encountered down here, including the rocks, because they didn't wobble, yet floated on the surface. About thirty-one years old, his face was rather reassuring.  
  
"Who are you?"  
  
He smiled at hearing her speak. "Tom. Who're you?"  
  
"Lily. Lily Evans. I hate to say this–but what is this place?"  
  
He looked stunned. "You mean you don't know? Where're your parents?"  
  
Lily shrugged. "I don't live here. I go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and some strange things have happened over the last year, and I've landed here three times. I don't know where I am, why I'm here, or how I got here."  
  
Tom frowned. "That sounds rather unbelievable, but, seeing that you go to Hogwarts, anything there's possible. Still, this place is the Alendoren Cove, off of the coast of Albania. I'm going to sound like a brochure here, but bear with me." He grinned at her. "It's several thousand miles deep, and the greatest elf-nymph sect of the world lives here. The water here is the same all to the bottom. No one has actually found out what causes the water to be so filled with light like this, but it's the only kind that the elvish tribe here can breathe. Only kind anyone can breathe, come to that."  
  
Lily shook her head several times, trying to absorb everything and failing miserably. "Do you know, I might be able to understand this better if I could sit on dry land–do you mind?"  
  
He laughed, a chilling, high, cold laugh, though oddly interesting. "Of course not. Come on." He took her wrist and propelled himself upward, dragging her with him.  
  
They broke the surface some thirty minutes later, and, after swimming east for another twenty, they reached a sheltered cove, surrounded by rocks and glistening sand. Both of them struck out for the beach, and, not wet at all, placed themselves on a large, flat rock, Lily looking at Tom as if he were an interesting specimen she was studying in Care of Magical Creature.  
  
"So–not to sound rude or anything, but what exactly are you?"  
  
He laughed again, taking his time before responding. "My mother was an elf- nymph. She had powers that she wanted to take her time to teach, which is why I'm down here."  
  
Lily interrupted. "Wait, wait there just a minute. She 'was' an elf-nymph?"  
  
He sighed. "Yeah, she died when I was born."  
  
"Oh." Lily could have bitten her tongue off for being so tactless. "I–I'm sorry."  
  
He shrugged. "Hey, never mind. I'll live, you'll live, the world will go on." He looked a bit sad for a minute, then his brow cleared. "Anyway, I have my mother's half of the family here. She wrote a long journal of what she learned throughout her lifetime, which, near her death, she transformed into a book. It was spelled so as to only be opened by me, and, as soon as I came of age, my relatives wrote to me. I've been studying her arts ever since."  
  
"Oh." Lily was sitting in silence, absorbing all he was telling her, when a splash broke the silence.  
  
A silvery head was weaving its way through the waves, a thrilling smile on her face. The elf-nymph so familiar to Lily was diving through the iridescent dew and coming towards them. Tom stood up and brushed his robes free of sand. "Oy, Litharelen! Meet my new friend." He gestured towards Lily as the elf-nymph reached shore, and, before Lily's eyes, changed her long tail into a silken, silvery, flowing gown. Running lightly, she reached their seat and was pulled up onto the rock by Tom.  
  
"Lily, this is Litharelen de Forneque. Tharelen, this is Lily Evans." The two smiled at each other and reached for each other's hand, each seemingly delighted to meet the other. Lily, on her part, was both that and happy to be able to touch the living metal of Litharelen's fingers. "Tharelen here is my grandmother's sister's daughter's niece, if that makes any sense to you. It doesn't to me, but it does to her, and I'm not willing to go through the family tree just to find out exactly how we're related." He smiled. "I'd love to invite you to dinner here. I know Tharelen here would just love to have a homo sapien at her table, as she calls your kind. He laughed again, and Tharelen frowned, a beautiful, silvery frown.  
  
"Stop that, Tom." She turned to Lily. "Welcome here. I've already seen you before, but I'd love to have you meet the rest of our family. Want to come?"  
  
Lily smiled broadly. "Of course."  
  
Litharelen beamed. "Come on. I'm afraid that you'll have to put up with people calling you Miss Evans, but I hope you won't mind. Tom did, though, when he met my grandparents, who call everyone Mrs. Slevanesaden or Miss de Forneque. When they wanted to shake hands, they held out theirs–"Good evening, Mr. Riddle." Tom actually looked over his shoulder, looking for that Mr. Riddle they were talking to!" She trilled a light ring of laughter and dived below the surface, resuming her usual form.  
  
Lily looked back at Tom, who was looking rather disgruntled. "What a mess."  
  
She was puzzled. "What?"  
  
"I hated my father. He deserted us after my mother told him that she wasn't of his kind, and I don't want to be mentioned in the same sentence as his name."  
  
Lily stared at him quizzically. "Well, what do you want me to call you?"  
  
Tom debated on something inside himself, then apparently made up his mind. "Call me Tom, but if you want to, my friends at Hogwarts called me Lord Voldemort. You can go with that."  
  
Lily grinned. "All right, my Lord, let's get to supper before it spoils, waiting for us!"  
  
He nodded. "You're right. This way." And with a well-aimed dive, he was off in the dewy water. Lily, not wasting an instant of time, followed immediately.  
  
They were at the door of a beautiful mansion, being itself a coral reef, when Lily felt a vicious pain on her cheek. Tom and Litharelen didn't miss her wince.  
  
"Lily, what's wrong? Are you all right?" They were especially worried, and, seconds later, when another blast hit her other cheek, she saw their figures, which were rushing toward her with concern written on their faces as she sank downwards, losing her senses, dim and fade into nothingness.  
  
Another hard slap on her cheek woke her up immediately. Regaining enough sense to keep her eyes closed, guessing they were silvery again, she shook her head violently and covered her ears. Around her she could feel the presence of many people, all of them shouting and shaking her. Nearby, she heard James' voice.  
  
"See, I told you she was only messing around. Slapping people usually wakes them up, right, Evans?"  
  
Lily felt a hand grope for her wrist and heard Eva's voice. "I'm taking her to the front. There's a teacher up there, C'mon, Lily." She bent down and hissed in her friend's ear, "Keep your eyes closed!" Then Eva yanked Lily to her feet, and, almost as if leading a blind girl, disappeared with her from sight.  
  
They whirled into an empty compartment and Eva shut the door and pulled tight the curtains covering it. "Lily, this is getting serious. Eyes open."  
  
Obedient to her friend's commanding voice, Lily flung open her eyelids and grasped at the mirror offered her by Eva. She didn't put it down, just kept staring at the image in the mirror.  
  
Instead of the past silver threads twining through her irises and pupils, her eyes were a brilliant silver, sparkling just as the hair of Litharelen had done. Lily tucked her hair behind her ears and felt the tips; pointy and thin, and strangely, they were picking up waves of sound for miles around. The roots of her hair were, in front of her eyes, streaking themselves with silver. Lily laid the mirror beside her on the seat.  
  
"Eva, I don't know why this is happening. I honestly don't."  
  
Eva nodded and sank onto the seat beside her. "I don't think you do. But you didn't look at the necklace again, did you?"  
  
"The last time I did that, it was to keep from drowning. I just stared at Malfoy. That's all. Just stared. And something happened there and I was off. Off somewhere. Actually, into the Alendoren Cove off of the coast of Albania." Exhausted, Lily leaned back against the upholstery and sighed. Eva was frowning.  
  
"How do you know?" "Oh–that–I talked to two people down there."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Yeah. Tom Riddle and–oh, I met the elf-nymph I'd only seen before. He introduced me to her. Her name is Litharelen de Forneque and she's some complicated relation to Tom."  
  
"Oh…that really doesn't tell us much about anything, does it?"  
  
"No." Lily stood up forcefully, pushing herself off of the seat in an angry thrust. "But I wish I knew why I'm going there! I wish I knew why this–" she grasped at her silvery roots–"is happening to me. Eva, sometimes I have the feel I'm going insane." She walked over to the window and leaned against it, absently remembering the live metal touch of Litharelen's hand as she pressed her forehead against the cool glass. 


	13. Welcome to Hell My name is Serena

By the time the Hogwarts Express pulled up in the Hogsmeade train station, the elf-nymph effects had worn off and Lily was as back to normal as one could expect. They arrived at Hogwarts and seated themselves in the Great Hall, but then Professor McGonagall came up behind Lily.   
"Miss Evans, I need to see you in my office." With that, she swished out of the Great Hall, followed by a bewildered and a tiny bit frightened Lily.   
They reached her office, and Professor McGonagall ushered Lily into a chair. "Miss Evans, I heard about an occurence on the train that you did not inform a teacher of." She looked at the petrified redhead expectantly.   
Lily cleared her throat several times. "Professor--I just felt a bit sick. Nothing really happened." She had the odd feeling that it wouldn't be the best idea to confess that she was being transported spiritually to another place, and the after-effects being rather strange. "I'm fine. Really."   
Professor McGonagall nodded slowly, half convinced. "If you are sure you do not need to go to the hospital wing, you may go down to the feast. Madam Pomfrey is an excellent nurse, and I am sure that any illness you have will soon be gone."   
Lily sprang up, her mind turning numb at the thought of James' comments if she had to go to the hospital wing. "Professor, I'm fine, really. The only thing I am now is a bit hungry--I'm not sick."   
Professor McGonagall nodded again. "You may go down to the feast, then. I shall see you in third-year Transfiguration." She gave Lily a rare smile. "I am sure you will do well."   
Lily sped out of the door, then, in the entrance hall, she decided she wasn't in the mood for taunts and headed for Gryffindor Tower.   
With a bit of good luck, Lily ran into a prefect as he was leaving the tower.   
"Password's Puritan hysteria."   
Lily thanked him with a smile and slipped through the portrait hole he held open for her.   
The common room was occupied by no one but the blazing flames in the fireplace, and, not in the mood for sitting in a common room soon to be bombarded with fully-fed Gryffindors, Lily took the steps up to the girls' dormitories two at a time. It took her a while to find the correct dormitory, since her room was now with the third years, but when the Gryffindors started spilling into the common roon, she was lying on her four-poster, sending a note off home with Alisande.  
Lily heard footsteps tromping up the stairs, and moments later, four girls stood inside the doorway, all looking rather curious. A chubby sort of girl with brown hair in plaits and eyeglasses stepped forward, holding her callused hand out to Lily.   
"You must be Lily Evans. Professor McGonagall told us you would be here." Lily took the outstretched hand gratefully. "I'm Abigail. Welcome–" she gestured around the circular dormitory–"I hope you'll like it here."   
Lily smiled. She had been terribly afraid that she might not fit in and would be shunned, and this girl was acting as nice as anyone could. Well, besides Petunia. Nice for Petunia would probably mean outright cruelty from this girl.   
The other three girls moved forward from their posts near the door. A short, thin, rather shy-looking brunette with a silky blue scarf around her neck moved forward. "I'm Elspeth. Hi." She gave a small wave, and Lily, feeling a bit stupid, moved her fingers a bit.   
The next inhabitant moved forward. A very pretty black girl, she wore long gold earrings and was chewing gum, smiling brightly. "Hi, Lily. I'm Diana. Say-are you coming to Hogsmeade this year? I'd love to show you that one shop they have there–"   
Diana pulled out a sort of magazine from her robes. She jumped on the bed and sat down on the edge, but just as she was slipping the front page away, a sort of cough froze her and elevated her off of the bed.   
The last girl was a tall blonde, with glittering blue eyes and a majestic air. Her hand, lifted airily to her mouth, was slender and delicate, just like the rest of her figure. But, unlike the other girls, there was no smile at her lips and no welcoming glance. Lily compared her silently to a Michelangelo statue stuck in the freezer.   
"Girls, honestly, don't we have enough trouble without looking after a tiny twelve-year-old? I should have thought you had more class than that." She sniffed and moved to her bed, and Diana and Elspeth followed immediately, without so much as a glance backwards. A bit hurt, Lily sank back onto her pillow. She felt a tug at her sleeve.  
Abigail was kneeling beside the bed.   
"Lily, I'm sorry."   
Lily was astonished. "Sorry for what? You didn't do a thing."   
Abigail nodded regretfully. "I know, but Serena did this to me when I was in my first year here. I didn't like it at all, and I always kept hoping she would be my friend." She shrugged. "Serena only hangs around beauty queens. I'm not a good enough candidate." She sighed again and fingered her glasses. Then she perked up. "Say, Lily, now that we're here together, do you mind if I consider you my friend?"   
Lily's mouth hung open. "Abigail–what on earth? Of course I don't mind!"   
Abigail flushed. "You don't know how much that means to me. I haven't had a real friend in ages. Say–" she opened her eyes wide–"can we play chess downstairs?"   
In answer to that, Lily jumped off of the bed and downstairs towards the common room, pulling Abigail with her, thinking, "She sounds nice, and right now I don't care what that Serena character thinks. Abigail's the nicest person I've met and I'm sticking to her."   
Upstairs, Serena Sikora was playing with her long blonde hair and pondering. She was no dummy, and she had come to a conclusion already.   
"If I want a shot at any of those five boys, that Evans girl better stay as ugly as she can be. And I know just how." A malicious smile crept around her cheeks as she flipped the page of Diana's magazine.  
The first day of their new classes, Lily was coughing madly from the smoke surrounding the Divanation students. The class was held high up in the North Tower, and it reminded her vaguely of what Petunia would do to a room if she got the chance. Professor Trelawney, the Divination teacher, was nowhere in sight as most of the students took their places on poufy armchairs.   
On one of the shelves that lined the room, there were several steaming teapots and cups with tiny saucers. They were in two different colors: pink and greenish-white. As Lily sat down at a smallish table with Abigail and a girl whose name was Patricia Forster, she caught sight of a glitter in the shadows near the curtains, and something looking rather like an oversized dragonfly wearing a cloak came out of the shadows. As the thing came closer, Lily realized that this was a person, in spite of her appearance.

"Good afternoon. My name is Professor Trelawney. I shall be your Divination teacher this year." She ushered Sirius, Remus, and James to the table behind Lily, and ended up placing James right behind Lily, who was beginning to feel more than a bit claustrophobic.   
"This art is not the king of magic one learns from books. We have in here several people who will fail hopelessly at their crystal art, although, if I have read the signs aright, the least successful student will have their wildest nightmares come to be reality." Her voice was light and wispy, sounding like an oracle, and many people looked nervous and fidgeted underneath the tabletops. Lily was coming close to ducking under the table to avoid the thick fumes from the incense burners on the mantlepiece.   
Half of the class Professor Trelawney gave teacups with wide leaves, instructing them on how to read the leaves. Lily was among those assigned to the incense ashes.   
Each ash-student was given a stick of incense, a holder, and was instructed to light their stick, tapping on it every twenty-nine seconds to make the ashes fall. "You will find your interpretations of the ashes on pages thirteen and fourteen in your books."   
Lily sighed. Underneath the table, she pulled out "The Princess Bride" from her bag and flipped it open, turning to the passage about the visit of the Princess Noreena. In between, she pushed the ashes off of her incense stick and wished desperately for a drink of cold water.  
At long last, the ashes were all on the tray, and she tilted it to the side, so that the ashes fell onto one of the greenish-white saucers. She flipped her book open and shook her head, muttering about how senseless this all was. "I would be doing something with more point if I were delousing my owl."   
Her finger moved up and down the page.   
"All right, where does it give me an explanation for a crumbly gray mess–oh, all right, fine, this thing looks more like a wand–ooh, hope I'm going to hex someone…here's something that could be a telephone–no, wait, a rat–I am going to have unexpected alliances and enemies. No surprises there…oh, there's something that looks like a rainbow thingy–pot of gold?–ugh, no…tears in my life–these ashes seem to hate me…"   
Abigail heard her and snorted with laughter, attracting Professor Trelawney's attention. She had just been checking James' tea leaves, and his saucer was still in her hand as she flitted over, picking up Lily's incense remains.   
Lily made a face as her teacher knelt next to her, put James' saucer on the table next to hers for lack of space, and then let out a tinkling, death-to-all-ear-drums scream.  
Half of the class jumped up, crowding around Professor Trelawney and asking what the matter was. For close to five minutes, her hand at her heart, she could only point to the two saucers in front of her. The class approached them tentatively.   
Lily had taken each saucer in her hands and was examining them. Abigail was bouncing up and down on the toes of her feet, trying to get a good view.   
"Lily, what do you see?"   
Lily frowned. "A bunch of soggy green stuff and loads of crumbly gray dust."   
At that, Professor Trelawney regained her strength. She shot up from her armchair as if she had been shot out of a slingshot. The two saucers she ed from Lily and placed them far out of reach, on the highest shelf in all of her book-cases.   
"My dear child, do you not see it? No–no, it is better you go unknowingly on your path. Do not ask it of me, dear child!"   
Lily gritted her teeth at the 'dear child' part. "May I please know what my crumbly gray dust represents?–excuse me, my holy incense ashes."   
Professor Trelawney guided her and James towards a sofa, pressing them down and grasping their shoulders forcefully, as if they would die if she let go. Lily lifted the hand off of her shoulder with the expression that conveyed the impression that she was trying to lift the corpse of a rooster off of her robes.   
"My children, your fate is written in the stars!"   
Lily wanted to say, "You mean, drawn in soggy wet stuff.", but this teacher seemed too loony to cross.   
"Your fate is entwined, my dears, and you are doomed! Didst you not glimpse it in your fortunes? 'Exactly alike leads to doom'! Your fortunes read the same; they were shaped the same, they are fatal!"  
Practically everyone in the room gasped at this. Lily was getting fed up.   
"Are you trying to say that we're going to get married and that we'll end up killing each other because we're so alike? Professor, I stink at Quidditch."   
Professor Trelawney looked somewhat miffed. "Be it so, then, child. Do not say I have not warned you." She rose, hand at heart, and stepped tremblingly to a high-backed chair that hid her completely from view. Her airy-fairy voice, however, still could be heard.   
"You may leave off for today, children. Take my advice, and enjoy the company of your friends as long as you are able…"   
"Oh, posh!" Lily kicked the trapdoor open and descended noisily. "That lady must be mad! I'm in perfect health, thank you very much, and have no desire for instant suicide. She's a regular loony."   
James caught up to her. His face was worried and drawn; he had obviously taken the lesson seriously.   
"Lily, don't you understand? We're doomed, we're going to die!"   
She shrugged his hand off. "Death is the only great adventure. I wonder what it would feel like to be dead? Maybe I would become a ghost and remember, and then I'd write a book about it! I'd become the first author to publish works written after her death! Ooh, I can't wait!"   
Smirking to herself at the stunned expressions running across James' face, she headed for Transfiguration.  
Abigail and Lily were giggling about that day's Divination lesson in the common room after supper, and Lily was teaching Abigail how to play chess. She had the basics down pat, but she kept making rather stupid moves out of nowhere, and Lily was trying to fix that.   
"Abigail, leave the knight there. He is protecting your queen."   
"But I can move the queen, right?"   
"No. That will put the king in checkmate."   
"So?"   
"Checkmate means you lost the game."   
"Oh, right."

The portrait creaked and Serena, Diana, and Elspeth stepped in, chattering in a lofty tone. Serena stopped when she was looking over Lily's shoulder.   
"You know, Evans, you don't need to spoil our good name by associating with someone from our dormitory. Go back to your pathetic little second-year friends and leave us third years alone."   
Lily's pawn smashed Abigail's queen. "I am a third year, Sikora."   
"What did you just call me?"   
"What, Sikora's your name, isn't it?"   
"My father is a great earl, descended from a line that was knighted by the Duke of Buckingham in the times of the Cardinal de Richelieu, and you dare call me simply by my last name, Evans?"   
"My father is a grants manager for his business, descended from his ancestors, who were bestowed with the title of 'Person with sense who does not bow to nobles', and you dare to call me simply by my last name, Sikora?"   
Serena's cheeks started to turn red. "You disrespectful little heathen!"   
Lily's rook ran headlong into Abigail's remaining knight and flew off of the board. "You miserable old substitute chemistry teacher that plucks her moustache hairs in class."  
Serena's chest started to rise and fall with rage, but then the portrait creaked again and revealed James and Sirius, laden down with cream puffs and chocolate eclairs from the kitchens. Serena changed her tone immediately.   
"What–Lily, I did nothing to you, and you insult me like this? I have tried to be nice to you from the minute I learned you were to be in our dormitory, and now you treat me like I am cattle? What did I do to be treated like this?" She said all this in a pathetic whining sound, high-pitched, which wasn't intended to fail to catch the boys' attention and didn't fail. They immediately came over, Sirius half-buried in a lemon tart.   
"Lily, what did you do this time?"   
"I smashed a queen. Not to mention a knight."   
Serena turned to James, wiping a tear away from the corner of her eye, almost pleading. "James, she learned that my ancestors had been knighted, and she has spared no chance of taunting me and making me feel terrible. I wish you could help me; if I have to keep on going like this for the rest of my time here, I just think I'll die!" Her blue eyes were filled with tears by now and her hair, perfectly arranged, had been drenched in the same tears. Her voice had a persecuted yet noble tone, and she was the very image of a maiden in distress. It was all Lily could do to keep from laughing out loud.   
James frowned a bit. "Serena, come sit with us. I promise we won't insult you." He took her arm and led her away from Lily, who was curled up against the back of her armchair in silent laughter, where no one but Abigail could see her.  
When Serena finally came up to the dormitory, it was ten o'clock and everyone else was in their night-gowns. She stopped by Lily's bed to sneer at the plain white cotton one she was wearing, then went to her trunk and pulled out something like a pair of dress robes. It was pale blue and shimmery, with a whole bunch of fluttery ribbons on it.   
Lily stared in disgust. "What is that?"   
"That would be my dressing gown."   
"Looks more like your house-elf got in a fight with a snake and then you dumped the remains of what was once alive into the freezer until it turned blue."   
Serena ignored this. Lily leaned over to whisper in Abigail's ear. "That was scary. Almost as if that was really what it was and she knew I got her secret."   
"Or, probably, she couldn't come up with a nasty enough retort."   
"That, too."   
Lily was, at the end of the week, still at the top of her classes. She had been getting the best grades in her year, with hardly any work. Eva had scowled fiercely when she had found out that Lily could dump her homework for the rest of the year and still pass with an average of a ninety-two.   
James and Sirius were giving her rather nasty looks, which were explained by the fact that they were spending lunch, breakfast, dinner, and lots of free time with Serena, Diana, and Elspeth. Lily was a bit beyond caring, thinking, "If they believe what that bubble-headed fanged bat says, they're honestly not worth my time.   
It was Friday morning, and Lily was entering Potions. Professor Cauldwell, as usual, was asleep in his chair at the front of the room, having already put up their work on the board. Sighing, Lily sank into her seat and busied herself with writing down the Inflammatory Solution's recipe. Giving the last flourish to her bit of parchment and propping up the recipe on her books, she felt a poke in the arm.   
Abigail was handing a note to her. Lily unrolled it and read:  
_  
Lily,   
  
Since I know you're not on good terms with Potter and Black and them right now, I might be able to help with a bit of revenge.   
  
Serverus Snape   
_  
Lily glanced up from her lap, where she had placed the note, and looked across her cauldron. Snape was looking over with a bit of a question in his eyes. Lily bit her lip and picked up her quill. She wrote only one word underneath his writing.   
  
_How? _  
  
When Abigail passed the note to Snape and he opened it, he started to shake a bit with silent laughter. He dipped his quill in the ink and passed the bit of parchment back.   
  
_Come to the Quidditch field this evening at about seven. The Slytherin team's practicing, and Malfoy's the team manager, so it's a bit natural that I should be out there. Want to come? I know James won't like that at all, but then, we're both fighting with him, so that's actually a good thing…_

Lily shot a glance over to James and Sirius, who hadn't missed the note-passing. She smirked and gave her answer.   
_  
I'll be outside the Great Hall at six-forty-five._  
  
They walked out to meet the rest of the team, Lily feeling much better than she had since school started.   
Their Keeper, Cathryn Clarik, a very pretty fourth-year with long, straight black hair and soft dark eyes, greeted Snape and Malfoy, but hung back a bit when she came to Lily.   
"Serverus, isn't that James' little girl?"   
Lily winced at that. "I don't belong to James Potter, I never have, and I never will. Serverus suggested this so as to made him livid. It's working pretty well, too."   
"Oh." Cathryn nodded. "Well, welcome. You can sit over there while we practice–" she gestured towards the raised teacher's tent, devoid now of its coverings so people could see the field a bit better–"since Lucius is going to be watching us from there."   
Lily smiled, nodded, and climbed the stairs to her seat. Malfoy was asking her a few questions.   
"So, why're you in our Potions class now?"   
"Oh–that, McGonagall skipped me into third year."   
"Oh–We were wondering about that. So, how did you manage to get Potter and Black so mad?"   
"My new dorm has someone called Serena Sikora in it, and she hates me. She has also managed to turn them against me, which, to tell you the truth, I don't mind so much."   
"You don't? I thought you five were best friends or something like that."   
"Were is right. I sort of gave up on them once I realized that they care more about what a girl looks like than what she's really like. I mean–you know what I mean, don't you?"   
"Yeah, but I'm kinda surprised that you just noticed that."   
She shrugged. "I felt really stupid when I found it out, too."   
"I can imagine."   
"Oh, shut up!" She hit him on the shoulder playfully.  
True to her word, Lily, unaccompanied by anyone else, was waiting in the entrance hall on a bench after dinner, waiting for Snape. He grinned when he saw her as he was leaving the Great Hall.   
"So, you're willing to do anything to make Potter mad?"   
Lily laughed. "Just about." She walked out of the two heave double doors towards the Quidditch fields, laughing and Talking animatedly with Snape, as she had spotted James, Remus, Peter, and Sirius leave the Great Hall with her dorm-mates.   
She kept it up until they were out of sight, then both of them practically fell on the ground, laughing.   
"Did you see their faces? I could have simmered soup for an hour if Sirius were the stove!"   
"I know! This is working!" They quieted down a bit as Malfoy came in view, looking puzzled at the sight of Lily.   
"What's she doing here?"   
Snape shrugged. "She's fighting with Potter and his gang, so I decided I'd help. It's working for me, too. You should have seen his face!"   
Malfoy was looking at Lily with a new kind of face. "Well, welcome to the club!"   
The team practice went very well, and Lily was almost looking forward to the day when Slytherin would wipe the floor with Gryffindor. After the last disastrous match, when Hatcher caught the Snitch when Gryffindor was 160 points in the lead, the team had shouted at him so much that he promised several times over that if he didn't do better, they could have all the fun jinxing him as they wanted to. The team agreed hurriedly and with lots of enthusiasm.   
There was no doubt in anyone's mind that Lily wasn't a spy for the Gryffindors when they walked back into the entrance hall and found the entire Gryffindor team standing there, glaring at Lily.   
James lost no time pointing her out. "That's the girl. She was bragging to the girls in her dormitory that she was giving our team's secrets to the Slytherins. Anything to say, Evans?"   
Lily retrieved her jaw. She had said no such thing, but she had an idea of where the accusation came from.   
"Yeah, I've got something to say. Do you believe every stupid rumor that you hear?"   
"This isn't a rumor. This is fact." Sirius, Remus, and Peter were also standing with the team.   
"And how do you know?"   
"Our source had no reason to lie. In fact, I believe she left off some things. Some things you wouldn't want put out in the open." James was looking at her as if she had just killed his parents. He reached behind Nigel and pulled Serena out. "Did you honestly think no one would notice?"   
Lily gasped. Serena's left eye was swollen and red, with a nasty purple ring around it. Her face had a cut running from her temple to her chin; the blood running form it had partly dried and had matted her hair down, and she was fighting back tears.   
"What–I didn't do that!"   
James started to hiss at her. "Of course you did. She told you that she'd tell us what you were going to do, and you attacked her. We have witnesses." He nodded over his shoulder to someone, and Diana and Elspeth came forward. "Tell her what you told us."   
Lily had had enough. She turned to Snape. "Do you mind walking me to Gryffindor Tower? I don't think I trust these lunatics. They'll attack me as soon as I'm alone."   
Snape nodded. "Of course."   
He took her arm and walked her out of the entrance hall, wand drawn.  
The team practice went very well, and Lily was almost looking forward to the day when Slytherin would wipe the floor with Gryffindor. After the last disastrous match, when Hatcher caught the Snitch when Gryffindor was 160 points in the lead, the team had shouted at him so much that he promised several times over that if he didn't do better, they could have all the fun jinxing him as they wanted to. The team agreed hurriedly and with lots of enthusiasm.   
There was no doubt in anyone's mind that Lily wasn't a spy for the Gryffindors when they walked back into the entrance hall and found the entire Gryffindor team standing there, glaring at Lily.   
James lost no time pointing her out.


	14. Attempted McCarthyism

"That's the girl. She was bragging to the girls in her dormitory that she was giving our team's secrets to the Slytherins. Anything to say, Evans?"   
Lily retrieved her jaw. She had said no such thing, but she had an idea of where the accusation came from.   
"Yeah, I've got something to say. Do you believe every stupid rumor that you hear?"   
"This isn't a rumor. This is fact." Sirius, Remus, and Peter were also standing with the team.   
"And how do you know?"   
"Our source had no reason to lie. In fact, I believe she left off some things. Some things you wouldn't want put out in the open." James was looking at her as if she had just killed his parents. He reached behind Nigel and pulled Serena out. "Did you honestly think no one would notice?"  
Three corridors from Gryffindor Tower, Lily saw Eva rushing towards her.   
"Lily! Where have you been? The whole darned Gryffindor Tower's looking for you–I got the impression that you'd killed someone! What happened?"   
Lily took Eva's shoulders. "Eva, are you also mad at me?"   
"What–Lily, of course not!"   
Lily breathed again. "Good. At least I know I have two friends. Serverus–" she turned to Snape–"thanks so much for getting me here. I'll be all right now; at least I know that two people are still talking to me."   
He smiled. "No problem. I'll see you tomorrow, then." He vanished down the corridor, and Lily pulled Eva into an empty classroom fast, because she heard the noise of feet coming from the direction of the entrance hall.   
They slammed the door and locked it, and as soon as Lily was sure they were alone, she snake to her knees, silent tears running down her face.   
"Lily, what's wrong?"   
"Eva, I don't know. Serena hates me, and I suppose she got in a fight and used the fact that she was hurt and that I was going to see the Slytherin team practice to her advantage. They're saying that I betrayed all of the secrets to Slytherin, and I'll bet the whole of Gryffindor House hates me now!"   
Eva sat down in front of her friend and offered her a handkerchief, which Lily took gratefully. "Lily, not all of Gryffindor Tower. I don't hate you. And neither do Vanessa and Amanda. Or Abigail. You'll be all right. Trust me." She smiled a bit as Lily stopped her tears for a bit, then broke out crying harder than ever, hanging on Eva's neck.   
Thirty minutes later, Lily had calmed down sufficiently to allow her to climb into the common room and ti not instantly be noticed that she had been crying. They left the classroom, opened the portrait (Puritan hysteria), and climbed into the common room. Lily closed her eyes.  
Relief flooded her as she saw the empty common room, filled only with flickering flames.   
Eva shook her head. "Lily, I'm not so sure if this is a good thing."   
"What–why not?"   
"That no one's in here. I'll bet they're all either looking for you so they can turn you into a corpse, or looking for your corpse."   
"Oh."   
"C'mon, let's get you upstairs. I'd hide if I were you."   
"What do you suggest?"   
"I have a very large closet in our dormitory. C'mon." They climbed the stairs as fast as they could, dashing into Lily's old dormitory. Her bed was still empty, Lily noticed with relief; there were only five instead of six trunks in the room.   
"Lily, you'd better sleep here tonight. Want me to get your things?"   
"No. I'll do that." Lily quietly tiptoed into her new dormitory to get her night-gown, then stopped dead in her tracks as she saw the Gryffindor team leading Serena to her bed.   
"Serena, don't worry, we'll get her for you."   
"I know. I'll bet she'll be transferring somewhere else at the end of the week." There was lots of laughter, and Lily slipped behind the door.   
Serena's voice, weak and trembling, came from the bed. "Thank you so much, guys. I'll be–"her voice broke into an anguished whisper–"I'll be fine."   
Slowly, the team trickled downstairs, and Lily saw Serena jump off of the bed as soon as Elspeth and Diana entered.   
"Diana, I told you I could pull it off!"   
Diana shook her head. "I didn't think they'd fall for it, but you did do a good job!"   
Serena smirked. "I know. Help me get this off, will you?" She had moved towards a mirror that had a bowl of water and some tissues next to it. She took one of the tissues, dunked it in the water, and carefully started wiping her face. Lily had to bite back a scream of rage.  
As the tissue was rubbed across the purplish ring around Serena's eye, the nasty bruise wiped off as easily as the flame on a candle blows out, leaving powdery yellow and purple residue on the tissue. Lily's eyes narrowed. She watched as Serena removed the cut from her cheek, the blood from her hair, and the ring from her eye. Then, with an evil smile on her face, she pulled out James' present to Lily, the makeup kit. Lily started to boil.   
"You know, it's a good thing that Evans girl doesn't use this. It came in very handy today."   
"Didn't it, though! And the best thing is, if she finds out–"   
Lily had had enough. Clearing her throat, she stepped out from behind the door.   
"If I find out what?"   
Serena lazily dunked her face into the water, then came back up and dried herself on a handy towel. "Find out nothing; there's nothing to find out."   
"Oh, yeah, right. And what about that?" She gestured to the makeup kit and dirty towel. "I believe that's mine."   
"Don't be so silly!" Serena flung her clean blonde hair over her shoulder and started to french-braid it. "You gave it to me, don't you remember?"   
"No."   
"Oh, honestly, Evans. I came in this room to say hello to you the day you moved in, and you gave me this, saying you'd never use it. You mean you don't remember?"   
"Remember what? There's nothing to be remembered."   
"Evans, don't be an idiot. If I scream right now the whole of Gryffindor Tower will come running to beat you into the ground. Be wise and remember that you gave me the makeup."

"If you screamed right now, they'd see you were a fraud."   
"How so? If you mean to tell them, that certainly won't go over very well."   
"I know. Because they'll realize that I'm right. You wiped off your makeup." Relishing Serena's white lips, Lily went over to her trunk, pulled out her nightgown and change of robes, and left the room.  
The next day, Eva woke Lily up as early as possible; four forty-five. They were ready in five minutes and were running down to the kitchens. Eva knew how to get inside; Basil had told her. After receiving as much food as they could carry from the house-elves, they joined Vanessa and Amanda, who had followed them downstairs, and escaped out onto the grounds.   
It was still dark outside, and the moon was almost full. Lily noted that especially, remembering Remus. They went to the lake, and, grateful for friends, Lily told them everything.   
"So you didn't do a thing to her?"   
"Well besides insult her after she did so to me, no."   
"Wow. I wonder what is possessing her to do that?"   
"To tell you the truth, she hated me ever since she saw me. I have no idea why."   
"Hum. And you didn't reveal any of the Gryffindor team's strategies or anything?"   
"There's nothing to reveal. I only went to their practice once, and that was last year. And then I only sat in the bleachers; I didn't hear a thing, and, besides, I was too new at Quidditch to know what exactly they were doing."   
"Shame."   
Lily and her friends whirled around to see Malfoy leaning on the trunk of a weeping willow.   
"Lucius–what're you doing here?"   
He yawned. "I wish I wasn't."   
"What are you doing here?"   
"Serverus wants to see you."  
"He does? Why?"   
Lucius shrugged. "I don't know. I wish he didn't, because I just got dragged out of bed and landed on the floor. I'm a bit sore all over." He felt his back. "But I don't know."   
"Oh." Lily was a bit puzzled. "You don't have the faintest notion of what this is about, do you?"   
"If I was a good guesser, I'd say yes, but I'm not, so I'll say no and see what happens. No."   
"I see." Lily got up and brushed her robes off. "Mind telling me where he is?"   
"Over by the Forbidden Forest, close to the Quidditch Field. You're welcome."   
"Oh–right, thanks. Hey–Lucius!" He was turning back to the entrance hall, but her last remark made him come back.   
"What?"   
"This isn't a trick to make me run headlong into the arms of ferocious Gryffindors that want to stick my head on a pike and dance around it, is it?"   
"Why would I want to help them? No. Not to my knowledge. Goodnight." He yawned again and made off for bed.   
Eva caught Lily's arm. "Do you want us to come?"   
Slowly, Lily shook her head. "No–no, not right now. I don't think you need to."   
Vanessa pursed her lips. "Lily, he's a Slytherin."   
"So what? Where does it stand written in the Book of Truth that all Slytherins have to be evil and hate me? Every single generalizations is false. Including this one," she added as an afterthought. "No, really. Just stay here." She finished getting the wet leaves off of her robes and made for the forest.  
Lily didn't see Serverus until she was ten feet from him, he being in his black Hogwarts robes. He stepped out from in front of a tree.   
"Um–Lily?"   
"Oh, there you are–What?–That is, Lucius told me you wanted to speak to me."   
He nodded. "Yeah…I did…Listen, I want you to know that I'm sorry about last night."   
"Sorry? Why? Did something else happen?"   
"Oh–no–I don't think so, but–Lily, if I hadn't invited you out here for practice, I doubt this would have happened. I'm sorry."   
Lily stared at him incredulously. "Serverus, Serena would have found some way to make me miserable, and I'm thankful it wasn't worse. This whole thing just goes to show me how dumb I was to think they were my friends."   
"So, was she really hurt?"   
"Nope. She could have a future in theater, however."   
"How so?"   
"She's very good with makeup. Makeup she stole form me and is now claiming as hers, including the nice teach casket it was in. And I can't protest, otherwise I'll have all of Gryffindor Tower on my back. And that would hurt. I'd be smushed."   
Serverus smiled a bit. "Oh. I see. Well–" he kicked the ground nervously–"I just want you to know that–well, that–erm…"   
"That what?"   
He took a deep breath. "Thatillalwaysbeyourfriendnomatterwhathappens."   
"That wh-wha-what?"   
"That–oh, never mind. You remember when you said this could be worse?"   
"You're wandering from the point and changing the subject intentionally, but I'll humor you. What about it?"   
"It can get worse."   
"Well, I knew that–" She whipped her head around, staring him in the face. "How?"   
"Do you know what the Minister of Magic's name is?"   
"Where did that come from? I hate to display ignorance, but no."   
Serverus, biting his tongue, seemed a bit reluctant to speak.   
"Well?"   
"His full name is Rowland Stuart Sikora. That tell you anything?" That depends. How many Sikoras are there in England?"   
"Not that many. You know what I'm trying to say."   
"Well, yeah, that Serena Sikora's father is the Minister of Magic. That explains why she has a lot of followers."   
"It certainly does. And, Lily, if you don't want to get into an even bigger mess than you're in now, you might want to make up with her as soon as you can. The Minister has a very ruthless temper."   
"Oh, posh." Lily gave a short laugh. "I can deal with that when it comes."   
"Oh, really? How?"   
"It might help if I knew what exactly was going to come, but trust me, I can deal with this."   
Serverus looked a bit doubtful, but he slowly nodded. "All right, I guess you can–you did take care of me and Lucius very well the day we met," he said, grinning. "And you hadn't even been to Hogwarts yet!"   
Lily smiled. "I'm a bit sorry about that–I thought James and Sirius and them were my friends then–I guess I was mistaken. I've said that so many times now," she added.   
"You know, Lily, why exactly did you stop being friends? I never found out the whole story."   
Lily shrugged. "Oh, nothing big, just after that last Quidditch match last year, I figured I'd find out who really liked me for who I am, so I threw all those painful curlers and things like that out. They refused to have anything to do with me from then on, so–well, you know what happened after that. We're practically tearing each other's throats out now." She sighed. "And I suppose, from his point of view, that what Serena told him is quite believable. I only have my word for it."   
"What–but our team knows you didn't tell us anything!"   
"Well, but that just might be because I hadn't gotten around to it yet."   
"Oh. She does have a strong case, doesn't she?"  
Instead of answering, Lily looked out over the grounds, which were now a light pink from the sunrise. Drawing her breath in sharply, Lily drew Serverus into the forest, where the dark trees his them from view.   
"Lily–what the–"   
"Shh!" Her set face made him quiet down and look towards the castle. He bit his lip. The Gryffindor team members, Sirius, Remus, and Peter were out combing the lawns.   
"Lily, this isn't going to go very well if they find you."   
"Even worse if they find us. Malfoy is the team manager, and you're his best friend, and if I'm caught here, I might as well check into the hospital wing right now. Go!" She pulled him farther into the forest, out of sight of the team.  
Scratched by brambles and wet from the morning dew, Lily managed to get into Gryffindor Tower and lock herself in her old dormitory. Eva, Vanessa, and Amanda were already there, with cloudy countenances, but their expressions cleared as soon as Lily walked in without a stretcher or crutches.   
"Lily! We were so worried! We had to leave as soon as we saw them,–but how ever did you get away?"   
Lily sighed and flung herself down on her bed, breathing hard. "You know Serverus and I were talking near the Forbidden Forest, right?"   
"Right. I told you not to."   
"Shut up. Anyway–Vanessaa, I was joking!–anyway, when they came out, we took a large detour through that wonderfully charming forest we have on our grounds. It needs to be weeded badly. After that, we got in through the kitchen door and the house-elves got me back up here. They have their own special entrance to all the towers–on the end of the long hallway out there. So I didn't have to face anyone in the common room." Exhausted, Lily fell back on the pillows, jumping back up immediately and pulling a ring of brambles out of the back of her robes. "Ouch."   
Eva shook her head. "You certainly were lucky. Did you see anything in the Forbidden Forest? Besides the usual creatures and plants, I mean something like werewolves and vampires."   
"Oh–" Lily shrugged. "I saw this horse-man thing about fifty feet away, but that's all. Nope. No werewolves or vampires. Lots of other things, plants, squirrels. No vampires." she added in a playfully mournful tone.  
The rest of the Saturday went well, seeing that Lily managed to hide from the Gryffindors She hadn't had any lunch or dinner, and at eleven o'clock at night, she was in a terrible mood.   
"You know, Eva, I'm about ready to let them find me, just so I can eat again."   
"But they'll permanently paralyze you! You can't!"   
"I'll have to go back to classes sometime, won't I?"   
"Well, yeah, but there're teachers there. You'll be safe."   
"Oh, honestly, who cares about safe?"   
"You should."   
"Well, right now I care more about getting a square meal. Unlock the door."   
"Lily, this is dangerous. Go to bed."   
"So, you're telling me now to go to bed? Who died and made you my mother? Not that I obey her," she added.   
Eva and Amanda managed to get Lily into bed around twelve. The only promise they got from her was that she wouldn't sneak out during the night, but in their turn they had to let her out in the morning. Neither of the two parties was much pleased with that, but it was the best compromise they could reach.   
Sunday morning was rainy with lots of wind, so the option of escaping outside when things got to violent inside sort of blew away. Lily woke her friends up at six-thirty, and they quickly showered, dressed, and went down to breakfast.   
It was just being served, and there were only about five people in the Great Hall, total. Eva was very pleased.   
They went back up to Gryffindor Tower afterwards (Puritan hysteria), and went straight to the fire, as the wind was beating on the cold windows. They pulled out a chessboard, but no one's mind was really on the game until there came yawns from the top of the dormitories' stairways.  
Lily's attention suddenly became riveted on the game, as did the attention of her friends. Ignoring the stares of Miranda, Ashley, John, and Remus, Lily coolly attacked Eva's knight. Pieces of spear and armor were flying all over the table as Remus stepped forward.  
"You've got a lot of nerve, Evans."   
Lily didn't turn from the chessboard. "Eva, do me a favor, get that Anatomy book out of my trunk and see how many nerve cells there are in the average human body."   
"Oh, so now you're being smart?"   
"I know I am thanks though for telling me."

John vanished back up the stairs. Several others were appearing, wondering what on earth was going on, then becoming enlightened as they saw the four friends playing chess in the totally empty common room. Remus advanced down the stairs. "You know, you honestly should get re-sorted into Slytherin. Crafty, mean, scared–You really don't belong here."   
"I know. If I could get re-sorted I'd do it; you really don't think that I willingly live amongst you people, do you?"   
Remus was speechless. "You mean that you'd honestly prefer Slytherin over us? What kind of traitor are you, anyway? First you turn on us in Quidditch, then you insult our House–What next, Evans? What next?"   
"I'm killing a pawn."   
James appeared at the bottom of the stairway, just in time to hold Remus back. "Hey, Evans, finally got up enough nerve to appear in front of us?"   
"In front of what? It really doesn't take much to sit among moldy mushrooms. Well–besides clothes that you don't mind getting dirty–"   
James grabbed her by the collar. "Listen, Evans, enough of that smart mouth. We want an explanation and we want it fast. Why did you reveal us to the Slytherins and attack Serena?"  
Lily pinched his fingers hard, and he let go, fast. "I'm waiting, Evans."   
Lily sighed. "So, really, what you want to hear from me is that I betrayed you and beat up Serena because I have a violent temperament and hate everyone in this room? Oh, and I can't forget in love with Serverus Snape. Is that what you want to hear?"   
James was a bit taken aback. That was, as a matter of fact, exactly what he expected her to say under cross-questioning. "Well, confess already, why don't you?"   
Lily sighed. She stared dreamily into space and started quoting something.   
"I have been thinking I would confess to them, Elizabeth. What say you? If I give them that?"   
She continued in a softer voice. "I cannot judge you, John." She paused, then went on. "What would you have me do?"   
"As you will, I would have it. I want you living, John. That's sure."   
Lily was speaking as if she were two people, her pupils contracted and her face frighteningly surreal.   
"Giles' wife? Have she confessed?"   
"She will not."   
"It is a pretense, Elizabeth."   
"What is?"   
"I cannot mount the gibbet like a saint. It is a fraud. I am not that man. My honesty is broke, Elizabeth; I am no good man. Nothing's spoiled by giving them this lie that were not rotten long before."   
Remus broke in. "What is she doing? She's going insane!" He started for her, probably to bring her back to the world with a slap on the cheek, but James held him back.   
"Remus, I'm not sure what's going on here. Just don't do anything."   
Lily was still dreamily gazing into space.   
"And yet you've not confessed till now. That speaks goodness in you."   
"Spite only keeps me silent. It is hard to give a lie to dogs."   
Then, frightening everyone half out of their wits, Lily's eyes snapped back to normal, cool and green, the dreamy expression gone.   
"Does that tell you anything?"  
The whole of Gryffindor Tower stared at her, shaken to the core by her strange behavior. It was so silent that one could hear every single heart beating, and Lily was the only one who kept her self-possession. Tossing her hair over one shoulder, she took Eva's arm and went back up the stairs to the dormitory, clearing a wide path as she ascended the stairs. No one wanted to come close to her, and she reached her bedroom unmolested.   
Serena, Diana, and Elspeth were sitting on Serena's bed; Abigail was standing in the doorway, a bit of fright and lots of admiration on her face.   
"Lily, I was so worried! I thought they were going to kill you or something like that!"   
Serena, who had modified her makeup so that she had a pinkish scar on one cheek and a pale lavender ring around her eye, sniffed haughtily.   
"Well, that was a minor performance. I could pull mine off much better than that. In fact, I have pulled mine off much better than you did. Diana, hand me that lipstick, will you?"   
Lily pulled Abigail and Eva over to her own bed, where they sat down, still looking at her with a bit of reverence in their eyes.   
"Sikora, I don't know where you get that idea."   
"What idea? You certainly did hit me in the eye–Elspeth and Diana saw you do it. And you told us that you would give out the Gryffindor team's secrets to Slytherin; don't try to deny it."   
"Where did that just come from?"   
"It's not my fault that my ancestors were recognized, and it certainly isn't right of you to treat me like this. I've tried to make peace with you so many times, Lily."   
"Oh, you're calling me Lily now."   
"I always have. I've always counted you as my friend, and I'm willing to forgive you."   
"Forgive me for what?"   
"I have never wanted to fight with you. I still don't know what I did that made you hit me with your sword, but I'm sure you had a reason that was–"   
"EVANS, YOU DID WHAT?"   
Lily spun around. Crowded at the door was Gryffindor Tower, both boys and girls. James was standing in the front, eyes flashing.   
"She never told us how she got that cut; she must have been too afraid of what we were going to do with you. You murderess, you–"   
He stopped, flailing for words.   
"Where's that sword you threatened us with over the summer?"   
"In my trunk."   
James, a bit taken aback by her icy tones in her voice, nevertheless moved towards her trunk, threw the lid open, and took out the first thing he saw.

"Potter, my foil's on the bottom."   
"It is not. It was lying on the top of your things." He held her well-known sword up. Everyone stared at it, gasping. Lily was a bit startled herself. The tip, usually flat and broad, was long and pointy, and covered in dark red, dark red that looked suspiciously like dried blood.   
"What about it?"   
"You attacked Serena?"   
"No."   
John had pushed his way forward. "For Pete's sake, Lily, confess, and you won't be punished as much!"   
"Confess to what? This is turning into regular McCarthyism!"   
James lost control. "EVANS, YOU'RE TERRIBLY RUDE, YOU'VE TRIED TO MURDER, YOU'VE BEEN A TRAITOR, AND YOU'RE STILL MAINTAINING INNOCENCE? FOR GOD'S SAKE, WOMAN, THE WORLD DOESN'T REVOLVE AROUND YOUR WISHES AND WHIMS!"   
When Lily got angry, she didn't explode; she didn't start to swell with anger, scream, or go into tantrums. Her anger was of the frightening sort that no one ever wanted to come across.   
Lily stood up. Everyone else practically melted before her; she radiated dignity and superiority to such an extreme that it was majestic. Her lips were an icy white, and everyone later swore that she grew several inches. Slowly, she walked towards James, not losing control, not shouting or screaming. She had never been made this angry before, and it was all the frustration of the past year that helped her appear like this. As usual, she had her black robes on, but they swung on her body like elegant clothing did on princesses. She was armed with nothing whatsoever, not a wand; not even her fist was clenched, but no one could doubt that if she struck, in whatever way she would strike, it would be fatal. Her eyes, still the forest green they had been, turned hard and dangerous, and as she paced towards James, he visibly cowered. She said this very slowly.   
"I tell you this, and I tell it once, you are not finding in me a helpless maiden you may burn at the stake. Molester me again, and I swear to you, you will regret the day you ever saw daylight." For an instant, her eyes flashed, green with silver threads running through them, and then her normal gaze fell upon the almost empty doorway.  
Almost empty. Almost. James was still standing there, not frozen, not frightened to death, simply quite a bit intrigued.   
"Wow."   
"Wow what?"   
"How did you do that to your eyes? That was amazing!"   
"What—what did I do?"   
"You mean you didn't do it on purpose? Double wow."   
He looked around. "May I come in?"   
"That depends."   
"On what?"   
"On if, when you leave, I'm still going to be alive."   
"Oh, that." He looked at her quizzically. "If you promise never to attack anyone anymore, then all right, I promise."   
"Can't do that. Sorry. Have a nice day." She turned her back on him and pulled a stack of Exploding Snap cards out of her bag.   
"What do you mean, you won't stop? Next thing we know, you might be killing people!"   
"Oh, honestly." Lily was a bit exasperated. "I'm leaving now." She got up and started out the door, but James held her back.   
"Hey—listen, I didn't mean to anger you. Please talk to me?"   
Lily started back out, but then gave in. "All right, all right fine. Say the magic words."   
"Which ones?"   
She slapped her hand to her forehead. "Never mind. Magic words in Muggle language are 'please' and 'I'm sorry'."   
"Those are pretty pathetic substitutes. But I'll humor you. Please and I'm sorry. There. Good enough?"   
"I suppose. It's the best apology I'm going to get out of you in any case."   
"Come play chess with us downstairs?"   
Lily narrowed her eyes. "Why are you being so nice all of a sudden?"   
He shrugged. "Well, part of it is that I don't ever want to see you angry like that again. You're really frightening when you act like that."   
"I know. That's why I do it."   
"Oh, really. I call the black pieces!"   
"Oh, no, you don't!"   
Lily chased him downstairs, leaving the dormitory gaping with wide-open mouths. All but one. One particular one. Her beautiful blue eyes were narrowed in loathing and her delicate hands were clenching her perfectly manicured nails into her palms, making them bleed.  
Over the next few weeks, the Gryffindors calmed down quite a bit, and Lily could walk places without being hissed at, and, a month and a half later, she and James were getting to be very good friends again. Sirius and Remus had rejoined them, though Peter was still a bit nervous and jumpy.   
They were in the common room, Remus and James complaining about a particularly hard essay for Professor Kettleburn, who taught Care of Magical Creatures (two rolls of parchment on the development of unicorns), and Lily was griping about the fact that they had just been tested on their incense ashes in Divination, and when she was asked what she saw, the words, "A load of crumbly gray good-smelling stuff" had outed themselves and, before she knew it, she had detention. Professor Trelawney gave evil detentions; Lily's was to dispose properly of the tea leaves and ashes used in Divination. But one could not just throw them away, no, according to the prophecy of each heap of trash, it had to have its own special ritual. Lily wasn't happy.   
Sirius was the only halfway satisfied one there. Their Study of Ancient Runes teacher was not very big on giving out homework, and he did very well in Divination, so he was mostly homework-free.   
That night, down in the common room, it was a week to go till Halloween, and everyone was excited. It made it almost impossible to work.   
"Miserable old dragonfly," Lily mumbled. "Giving detention on the night of Halloween. She really does hate me, doesn't she?"


	15. James and Serena The perfect couple Ma...

Dum—dee—dum…thanks to all 4 people that replied…I'm probably going to change the rating.  What is it now, PG?  Well, it might go up.  Not to R or NC-17, just the little PG-13 one.  Maybe.  Does an occasional 'damn' matter in a PG rating?  I hope not.  Oh, well.  You'll live.  And if not, give me the date of the funeral and the name of your favorite flower, and I'll be sure to come.  Until then, here's a bit more.  

**********

James nodded. "She does."   
"Oh, hush. I needed an 'Of course not, who could hate someone like you', not a 'She does'."   
"Well, it's a bit pointless denying it. Especially since you got into that logic discussion and wiped the floor with her."   
"Well, what can I say? I'm good at logic."   
"I'm not going to dispute that."   
"I know. Because you'll lose.'   
"Oh, shut up."  
Their conversations had usually gone like this, and it was fine with Lily, who preferred it over their fighting. Neither of the boys liked the fact that she was on good terms with the Slytherins, but they were living with her decision. For now.   
They didn't exactly talk to Abigail much, saying that they didn't know her that well, even though Lily had tried to introduce them and get them talking several times. Secretly, Lily suspected that they didn't want to be around her that much because she wasn't blade-thin and a beauty queen, but she kept her opinions to herself.   
Serverus had persuaded her to become a bit friendlier with Serena, and grudgingly, Lily had agreed. It worked; at least Serena wasn't clawing herself up and accusing Lily. She had helped her with her homework on several occasions, still, grudgingly, and only because Serverus practically implored her to do so. He was more afraid of the Minister of Magic than she was, and she really wished he wasn't. It would make her life so much easier, without having to practically scrape the shoes of someone she wanted to use as a boot-rack.   
Finally, around eleven, they had their homework completed and were going up to bed. Lily was the last to leave, having more things to clean up. She finished rolling up her essays and calculations, when she cast a last look at the still roaring common room fire. She had to sit down; mainly because her legs failed her.  
A familiar person was sitting in the flames, which had parted so as to form a chair for him. His messy black hair wasn't even singed by the flames touching him; neither were his robes.   
"Tom—Voldemort? What—how—why?"   
He smiled and stepped out. "Aren't you going to welcome me in?"   
"It seems you did that yourself. How did you do that?"   
"Magic."   
"Well, duh. Why did you come here, of all places?"   
"Making sure you were all right. You sorta faded away last time I saw you."   
"I know. Next thing I knew, I was lying on the floor of the Hogwarts Express, with people slapping my cheeks."   
"That's odd." He frowned. "I wonder what could have made that happen."   
"I have no idea. I don't even know why or how I got to the Alendoren Cove. I started looking it up, but the library here is huge. The only thing I did was stare at Lucius."   
"Lucius?"   
"Malfoy. He goes here. In Slytherin, very rich, Quidditch team manager, don't think you'd know him.   
"You think right. I don't. I think I used to know someone named Malfoy—oh, never mind. Doesn't matter. Anyway"—he flashed a conspiratorial grin at Lily—"you want to come back to Alendoren? Litharelen wants to talk to you."   
"Why?"   
"She had a large family reunion, and her parents invited several great-grand parents to come live with them, and she needs someone to talk to. She liked you. Coming?"   
Lily cast a quick glance over her shoulder to make sure no one else was watching, then nodded.   
"Of course."   
He took her hand, lifted her into the fireplace, and, a moment later, they were standing in a fountain inside a beautiful, iridescent mansion. Lily stepped out towards a figure she saw sitting on a bench, but who jumped up as soon as she saw the arrival.   
"Lily!"   
"Litharelen!"  
They raced towards each other and hugged. Lily only came up to Litharelen's chest, but they still felt like best friends meeting again after a long time.   
"Oh, you don't know just how bored I've been!"   
"I might. Tom told me a bit of what's happened here."   
Litharelen laughed, a beautiful, musical, tinkling laugh. "He didn't tell you that I'm having to wait on them hand and foot, did he?"   
"No, he didn't," Lily admitted. "That must stink."   
"Oh, it does. Have something to eat?"   
"Erm—do you have things that homo sapiens can eat?"   
Litharelen laughed again. "Don't be ridiculous. Tom lives here, remember?"   
"Oh, yeah, right. I'd be glad to."   
"Come on, then. Tom, you hungry?"   
"Um—not really, but I'll come."   
They headed out of one of the many doorways framed in sculptures and inlaid with gold, ivory, and silver, and made for what Litharelen called the kitchen. When Lily reached it, it surpassed anything she'd ever seen in ways of a kitchen.   
In the first place, instead of a stove, there was a large contraption based on a fountain that spouted water from the mouths of four statues. It had four long, thin pieces of iron placed at every corner that curled over the spout of water to form a ring, somewhat like a gas stove, only with hot water instead of fire.   
In seven of the twelve fireplaces, kettles were hanging, and each of them emitted a different smell that Lily recognized from somewhere, yet couldn't pin down. The tiles of the floor were marble swirled with silver, and the counters were the same, though with iron snakes for handles. Overhead, three marvellous chandeliers hung, iron, though laced with silver and hung with crystal. Normally, such an addition would have made a room look ridiculous, but this enhanced it, throwing a warm, blue, iridescent glow over the whole room. Lily felt stunned.   
"And I thought Hogwarts had a nice kitchen!"

Tom moved to a fountain placed in the center of the room, made in the same style as the chandeliers, except that from four snake-shaped hooks there hung four crystal pitchers. He took one off and dipped it into the spouting liquid.   
He drank deeply, then passed the pitcher to Lily, who, a bit curious, took a small sip, then another, and another. It was almost as if she had become addicted to it.   
The liquid had taken the appearance of molten silver, but it tasted something like all the good things she had ever had in her life all rolled together, forming something sweet, cool, refreshing, and intoxicating. Litharelen quickly reached over and took the pitch away from her.   
"That's enough! The first time Tom had this, he had half a pitcher and walked around the rest of the day spitting out his deepest secrets!"   
Lily quickly dried her mouth off. "I've had enough, thank you."   
Litharelen laughed again. She set the pitcher down on the counter and closed her eyes, concentrating deeply. In a moment, she changed back into the almost-human she had been when Tom introduced them, with a flowing gown swishing around her body.   
"There, much better. I feel so out of place when I'm the only one with a tail!"  
Lily was the one to laugh now, but she stopped as soon as she heard an inhuman sound come form Tom's throat.   
"Tom—"   
"Shh!" Litharelen clamped her hand over Lily's mouth. "Don't wake him! He had the rest of the litaleter! If you wake him, people say he'll go insane!"   
"Wouldn't take much, really."   
They were interrupted by a harsh, creaky, high sound coming from Tom.   
"Do you know, if I find that necklace, I'll have power over everyone on this wretched earth? It's true. I only have to find the one who wears it—they say he's at Hogwarts. At Hogwarts. My old school."   
His head drooped onto his chest and he started to snore lightly, but then he snapped his head back up. "Wh—did I miss anything?"   
Litharelen took the empty pitcher out of his hand. "Idiot. You'd think that you'd learn, after the last time."   
"Last time what?"   
"You had too much litaleter."   
"Not again! What did I say this time?"   
"Some mumbled junk about a necklace and that whoever has it is at Hogwarts. If those are your deepest secrets, you need to work on getting better ones." She sniffed, smiling.   
The rest of the day passed nicely. It seemed that the time here was different; that they were a few hours ahead of Lily, so they were ready to get up when Lily was falling asleep standing. Sitting on a couch in what Litharelen called the living room, Tom and Lily were talking while Litharelen was bringing food to her great-grandparents.   
"So, what was all that about a necklace?"   
He looked a bit embarrassed. "I do need to stop drinking that stuff. Anyway, I read somewhere that the elf-nymphs made this one necklace of power once, and it gives long life and the power of no other mortal on earth. I thought that might be nice to have."   
Lily breathed again. She had thought for a minute that he had been talking about her necklace, which she kept tucked under her robes, but she certainly didn't have the power over all mortals.   
"So, the person that has this, he's at Hogwarts?"   
"Or she. You know, if I were a supreme ruler, I'd make this world such a better place. It's frightening to think that it might be in the hands of a no-account, greedy, good-for-nothing spoiled child. He'd make the world simply serve him. I couldn't stand that." He shuddered.  
Lily smiled. "Well, I'd do my best to find it for you. I think, from what I know of you, you'd make a pretty decent ruler."   
Tom raised his eyebrows. "Thanks. But wouldn't you want all that power for yourself?"   
"No. I'd be too tempted, and, anyway, I'd hate people bowing to me—and worse—be hounded by the press all the time."   
He laughed. "You'd hate people bowing at your feet? Geez, you're strange!"   
"Thank you. No, but really, I think I will do my best to find the necklace for you. Who knows, if I don't, the world may be run by a nasty, greedy someone like Serena." She shuddered.   
"Serena?"   
"A sort of Barbie doll in my dormitory with the personality of a wet mop."   
"I see. That would be scary. We'd all be inventing new types of cosmetics for her to wear—aargh, I'm shuddering just thinking about it." He was, too.   
Lily finally fell asleep on the sofa, covered with a blanked made of knotted silver strands, strangely light and comfortable.   
About two hours later, she woke with a start. "Uh-oh."   
Lily had remembered Hogwarts and that she was supposed to be there right now, and that people might be in a frenzy when they found out she was missing. Sliding out from under the blanket, she noiselessly made her way back to the fountain in the grand hall where she had first set foot in the house. Taking a deep breath, she stepped into the fountain, and, before she could think, she was whirling back to Hogwarts in a whirling storm of fire and water.  
The next thought she was capable of having was that she was standing in the common room fire. Feeling the flames lick at her robes, she jumped out quickly, beating out a few scorchers.   
Lily glanced out the window, quickly. She noticed with a relief that it was still dark outside, but the moon was gone. Gathering her things, she started to make her way up to her dormitory, when a cough from behind her stopped her dead in her tracks.   
She whirled around. "James Potter? What on earth are you doing here at—" she checked the clock—"five thirty in the morning?"   
He quickly stashed a book behind his chair. "I might as well ask you that. What are you doing in the fire at five thirty in the morning?"   
"I'll tell you if you'll let me see what you just hid."   
"I'll let you go to bed."

"I'm not going to bed now. I'd oversleep terribly."   
"Well, why were you going upstairs?"   
"To put my things away and get a book, genius."   
"Ah."   
She vanished up the stairway and appeared a moment later with The Princess Bride. "I'm going to read, you may commence in your book." She opened it to the visit at Miracle Max's and buried herself in the nutty Max and Valerie, coming up very unwillingly at a "Lily?" from James.   
"What?" she practically snapped.   
"Oh—sorry."   
"Never mind. What?"   
He looked a bit nervous. "I'm not exactly sure how to say this."   
"Try and see what happens."   
"All right." He arranged himself in his armchair. "Lily, have you ever felt really inferior to someone you really liked? I mean really liked."   
"I've felt inferior to my cat."   
He was a bit taken aback. "You what?"   
She shrugged. "My cat is in cat heaven. I will never go to cat heaven. Proceed."   
"Oh." He looked at her sideways, as if doubting her sanity, but he did proceed. "I don't mean like that. I mean like—Do you have the faintest idea of what I'm trying to convey to you?"   
"Yeah. I'm just making it hard for you."   
"I noticed. Well, anyway, I guess I'm in that predicament, and I need your help."   
"How?"   
"I-well, there's someone I really do like, and I'm a bit scared to tell her."   
"Go on."  
"She's in third year…and I'm not sure exactly how to say this—"   
"You know, Serena Potter sounds really stupid."   
"What—" He turned brick red. "How did you know—I mean, where did you get that idea?"   
"Instinct. And the fact that she's pretty and that you're a guy. Not that hard to combine. Oh, I'm forgetting that you're quite inferior to her. It takes a lot to be that, trust me."   
"Don't insult her in front of me! You've already attacked her!"   
"Calm down, Prince Not-So-Charming! I only mentioned an opinion. Is there anything else you want to say?"   
His fist retreated like lightning and he sat on it. "Yeah."   
"Well, then, shoot!"   
"Erm…you're on pretty good terms with her, aren't you?"   
"Pretty good. Not best friends, but then, who'd want to be friends with a wet mop?"   
"Lily stop it. Are you talking to her?"   
"Uh-huh. So what?"   
"Well, I was just wondering…" His eyes roved all over the common room, making sure no one was hiding anywhere or listening, and he leaned back to check the stairways. Finally satisfied, he bent closer to Lily, who was running her finger through tousled hair.   
"Do you think you could ask her what she thinks about me? I'd really like to know."   
"Why?"   
"You're being difficult again. STOP!"   
"All right, all right. I'm warning you, though, I don't do very well at playing matchmaker."   
"I don't care. Do your best, please. I'm begging you."   
"What'll you give me?"   
"You want payment?"   
"Matchmakers in China got paid for doing this kind of stuff. What'll you give me?"   
"Oh—I don't know—what do you want?"   
Lily started to laugh at the sight of James willing to do anything. "I should really blackmail you for this, and your problem is, I'm the only girl here you can trust."   
"How'd you know that?"   
"Logic. And observation."   
"You scare me sometimes. But really, what do I have to do?"   
She shrugged. "I'm not going to be greedy, and, anyway, I'm in a generous mood. I'll question her for you, keep your secret, everything, on the condition that you stop accusing me of beating her up."   
He raised his eyebrows. "Didn't you? Oh, well, if that's the best I'll get, then all right. Shake?"   
"Shake," she agreed. They both stretched their hands forward, and the handshake ended in a sort of arm-wrestling contest, both of them laughing.  
"All right, all right. I'm warning you, though, I don't do very well at playing matchmaker."   
"I don't care. Do your best, please. I'm begging you."   
"What'll you give me?"   
"You want payment?"   
"Matchmakers in China got paid for doing this kind of stuff. What'll you give me?"   
"Oh—I don't know—what do you want?"   
Lily started to laugh at the sight of James willing to do anything. "I should really blackmail you for this, and your problem is, I'm the only girl here you can trust."   
"How'd you know that?"   
"Logic. And observation."   
"You scare me sometimes. But really, what do I have to do?"   
She shrugged. "I'm not going to be greedy, and, anyway, I'm in a generous mood. I'll question her for you, keep your secret, everything, on the condition that you stop accusing me of beating her up."   
He raised his eyebrows. "Didn't you? Oh, well, if that's the best I'll get, then all right. Shake?"   
"Shake," she agreed. They both stretched their hands forward, and the handshake ended in a sort of arm-wrestling contest, both of them laughing.

Around six thirty, the common room was pretty well filled. Lily didn't see Serena anywhere, but she figured it would be best to tackle her while she was more or less alone in the dormitory. Thinking that over and giving James a nod, she sped up the stairs.   
She slowed down a bit before she reached the bedroom, her breath coming and going like mad. She was running over a speech in her mind, but when she reached for the doorknob, she pulled back as if it had electrocuted her.   
"Why don't I want to do this?"   
She leaned against the wall. "He's my friend, I should help him out, I made him a promise, so what is wrong with me?" She reached for the doorknob again but pulled back, not wanting to go inside.   
"I'm being stupid. Stupid; there's no other word for it. What in tarnation is wrong here? I promised James I'd help him out; why is there anything wrong with that?"   
She sighed. Slumping down onto the floor, she brooded over things a bit.   
"Honestly. Truly. I think-I think that's it. I just don't want my friend to become attached to someone I know is no good. I think that would explain it--"   
She groaned. She had remembered a passage in The Princess Bride--and people don't look at other people the way the Countess looked at Westley because of their teeth!   
"That isn't going to do me a bit of good. It's fiction. And he's perfectly entitled to make a fool of himself over Serena if he wants to--so why don't I want him to?  
Over the next few days, Lily kept running over things in her mind that had to do with Serena; mainly opening speeches for the touchy subject. They all were lousy, and she finally decided to do what she usually did when pressed to say something: like the Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court said to do for prophesy: take out your brain and put it in a safe, cool place, then unship your jaw and the rest is prophecy. The best bet for her was to make the best she could of an advantageous conversation.   
That occasion came sooner than she wanted it to.   
They were in their dormitory only a week after Lily's conversation with James in the common room, alone, and Serena was in a generous mood and sharing chocolates her father had sent with her family's crest on them. It was a sort of study session; that is, they had their Potions books out, but they were chattering meanlessly, Lily attempting to hold in an enormous yawn that was resting on her tongue and threatening to pounce.   
She was terribly bored with the conversation, which had to do with the ballet company that had sent Serena a catalog, and how the dance program she attended every summer was going to order these tap shoes and this costume, and at the end of every sentence she was adding 'right?' and Lily was getting fed up. She remembered her promise, though, and kept her mouth shut, even thought the speech she was listening to was terribly long and touched on every subject in the world, yet the result was just wind.  
"So after that, Kenneth saw the costume he was going to be wearing, right? And it was the clingy kind that was in a sort of brown and gold and lavender color, so he really protested against that, because Monica was the heroine in that performance, right? And she was wearing this flowy blue costume that was sort of a cloak and sort of a skirt, but looked like watery silk, so he was so scared of looking stupid, right? So then he asked Julian to beg his mom to let him buy this other costume he saw in the magazine, because he was really hung up on Monica, right? And–Aah!"   
She jumped up and started fishing the chocolates out of where they had fallen, right on her new robes, which Lily had had the foresight to tilt dangerously on the shelf.   
"Serena, are you all right? Here, let me help you." Together, they managed to get the truffles back into the box and the smears off of Serena's robes. Lily wasted no time once they got re-settled on the bed.   
"You know, Serena, you were talking about Kenneth and Monica? About how they were so hung up on each other? Well, were you ever in that spot?" She started using a bit of flattery that had to be wrenched out of her mouth bit by bit. "I mean, since you're so mature and–pretty, and since all the boys here are falling over themselves for you, I just wanted to know, and of course, if you didn't want it to, it wouldn't go any farther than this room, you know, harmless girl talk."   
Serena was obviously pleased. She flung her sheet of blonde hair over her shoulders and leaned close to Lily, who was combatting wildly with herself to keep the smile pasted on her face and her nose from sneezing after smelling the strong mints Lily could tell Serena had been nibbling on.  
"You've got to promise this won't go anywhere."   
Lily leaned forward, too, nodding excitedly. "Why, I'm not the type of girl that goes around blurting secrets. You can tell me!"   
Serena nodded, smiling conspiratorially all the while. "All right then. I–you promised?"   
"I promise. Tell!"   
"Well, then, you guess!"   
"Guess?" Lily was a bit taken aback, and since she had no intention of blurting out James' name first, she pretended to think, then appeared shocked. "It's not any of the Slytherins, is it?"   
Serena recoiled. "No–what makes you think of that? Gryffindor. Go on!"   
Lily rested her head in her hands. "Um–er–is it a third year?"   
Serena giggled. "Of course!"   
Lily grinned back, though she was about to hurl when she thought of the flaky way she was acting. "Um–do I know him?"   
"Yes. You know him."   
"That narrows it down a bit…" Lily started to giggle madly. "Is it Remus?"   
Serena sniffed loftily, a bit of her old self back. "Of course not."   
"All right then. I don't think you'd like any of the Sutton family, they aren't exactly all that smart–and I know for a fact you don't like that odd Longbottom kid there–"   
"Oh, really! Am I that good an actress every time I go around him?"   
Lily looked intrigued. "Around who?"   
"One of your good friends…" She let her sentence trail off suggestively.   
Lily thought she'd have to run to the toilet to be sick after she was done with Serena, but she continued, gasping a bit for breath between giggles. "Sirius Black?"  
Serena turned a bit pink. "That was last year. This is now. Come on, girl , think! James Potter, of course!"  
Lily grinned even wider and joined Serena in the largest giggle attack she ever thought she could force herself to have.

"James? Why–why him?"   
Serena tossed her head. "Oh, come on, cute, rich, witty, brilliant, Quidditch Chaser–what more could a girl want?"   
Lily didn't say what she thought, namely: "Well, all that's not going to be enough if he's completely rude and heartless," but she dearly wanted to. She had to bite her tongue. That was when she found out that it was possible to bite one's tongue and giggle at the same time.   
She left the room a half hour later, after making up some stuff about how she thought one of the Slytherins was cute and how he refused to notice her and she instantly regretted that because she got a load of advice from Serena, who was self-promoted to the position of expert. Lily leaned against the wall outside, feeling as if her stomach had been punched mercilessly. She fled when she saw Serena coming out of the door, then dashed back to her bed and spent the afternoon huddled on her bed, not moving an inch, not twitching a muscle, reproaching herself inside, and getting disgusted with herself for not letting her reason prevail. "It's almost like I have two souls inside of me, and one of them continually wants what I don't. And I have to beat that one down."   
She got undressed later that evening, a bit resigned, a bit depressed, and a bit tired. Abigail noticed her somewhat stand-offish attitude when she came upstairs for bed and Lily was already undressed, but the only answer she got was: "I had to spend a morning giggling with Serena. I'm tired." Lily was relieved when Abigail accepted that and climbed into bed, as she was too weary for explanations.   
It was a Monday night, but the time seemed to fly unnaturally to Friday afternoon. Halloween. And the night of Lily's detention with Professor Trelawney. Lily was not pleased.  
Definitely not pleased. She got a note around five, reminding her to come to her Divination classroom at seven, the hour when the feast would be starting. Fussily saying goodbye to her friends, she tromped up the stairs to the tower at the time when they were leaving for the feast.   
She was, as usual, exhausted when she reached the top with cramped muscles and wished for a long, hot bath. The only one she'd get in Professor Trelawney's room, she reminded herself gloomily, was a sort of sauna, what with all of the steam coming from the constant teapots and fires. But she was in for a surprise.   
It was freezing in the tower room, almost as if there had never been a roaring fire in there since it was built. However, she clamped her teeth, pulled her robes tight around her, wished desperately that she had brought a cloak, and stepped inside.   
Immediately, Professor Trelawney swooshed down on her, bearing a large tray about the size of the tables in the common room. She set it down in front of Lily, snapping at her. "You're late."   
Lily didn't answer. She stood where she was, waiting for instructions and slowly turning to ice.   
Professor Trelawney pointed to the tray, which held all of the incense ashes and tea leaves the students had used that week.   
"Each of those have a different disposal method. Separate the similar ones and come to me for a list." She vanished behind a curtain.   
Lily frowned. This was a bit stupid, she was thinking, not to mention pointless. Making up her mind to do this the easy way, she sat down beside the table and pulled out a new book on world religions: Theo's Reise. Fifteen minutes later, she stood up and stepped behind the curtain.   
Trying to ignore the fact that her teachers nose was practically glued to a crystal ball, she cleared her throat loudly.   
"Professor, you promised me a list–"   
"Ah yes. Take it. Begone. You have disturbed my crystal gazing, which it should have been better you not interrupt. I have seen your figure, child, surrounded by evil, despair, even death, and…"   
Lily heard the airy voice trail away as she left the room with a rather rude sniff. She regained the table and glanced at the roll of parchment.  
For the tea leaves with the sign of the Sun, remove the sign of the Sun and drop each leaflet into the kettle, which must be containing boiling water, placed over blue, cold-producing flames coming from logs placed in a circle with a diameter of thirty centimeters. After fifteen minutes, stir for twelve seconds and leave off, leaving the handle at precisely thirty degrees west from your person…"   
  
It went on and on like that. Lily got a bit fed up after the first few paragraphs and threw the parchment down, grumbling.   
"Miserable old bat! It would be so much easier to dump everything into the stupid kettle at once and–wait, that's not such a bad idea!" Sneaking a glance over her shoulder to make sure she was unwatched, she took the contents of each saucer and dumped it into the kettle hanging over the fire. She stirred haphazardly for a few seconds, glanced into the mound of leaves, and wasn't even surprised this time.  
"Tom Riddle, why are you doing this?"   
His head, formed out of green and brown soaking wet leaves, cracked a wide smile. "Well, mainly to ask you where you went last time you were at Litharelen's. You just vanished."   
"Oh, right." Lily racked her brain a bit. "I–I fell asleep and forgot that they'd miss me at Hogwarts, so I didn't think much after I remembered that at waking up. Are you mad?"   
"I am perfectly sane. No, really, Lith and I just wondered. Want to come now?"   
Lily shook her head. "Tom, I'm in detention. I have a teacher in the next room, and I'd better commit suicide on the spot rather than face the consequences of what she'd do to me. I really can't."   
His eyes flashed a murderous red for one instant, and he reared himself up, causing Lily to veer all the way across the room, into a table, knocking it over, and finally landing in a heap. He stood up, rose out of the kettle, and started making his way across the floor to Lily, who was lying there petrified.   
"I asked you to come. You would do well if you obeyed, seeing that–"   
Lily gasped. He had vanished and was nothing more than a puddle of leaves and a bit of hot water on the floor. Puzzled, she turned around and saw Professor Trelawney, standing over her with an excited expression behind her glasses.  
"Child, you most certainly saw something! Tell me what it was! You were talking to it, walking away–did you see you doom? Did you see a murderer–a beast–what did you see?" She was on her knees beside Lily, who was still a bit shocked. Shocked and frightened.   
"Tell me, child, what did you see? Was it a person or a beast or a bird or a bat?


	16. Rude people are so annoying, aren't they...

"Was it something bodiless, only occupied by a soul–What is it, dear?" Lily jumped up, madness seemingly overcoming her at the chatter and noise Professor Trelawney was making. She dashed all the way to the trapdoor, kicked it open, and ran all the way down to the Great Hall, sliding into her seat as fast as possible, trying to forget those red, snake-shaped eyes, blasting fire and doom at her.   
Lily refused to answer any questions that evening, and she went to bed as early as possible, trying to block out her last scene with Tom. She was awakened rudely, however, at about two in the morning, by someone shaking her violently by the shoulder. "Lily! Get up!" "Wh–who're you? Go back to bed and let me do the same."   
"Lily!" The voice was a bit more urgent now. "Get up!" The person pulled her sheets away. "Get up now!"   
"I want my sheets back!" "You'll get tem if you come downstairs with me. Come on!" "James? You lunatic. Two a.m. is early even for me." She stretched, yawned, stretched a bit more, and ed her sheets from his arms.   
"You're coming downstairs right now or I'll dump a bucket of water on you!"   
"Oh, right." He held up a large tin pail. "I wasn't bluffing. Come on."   
"Oh, all right!" Muttering under her breath, she wrapped herself in her blankets and tramped downstairs to the roaring fire, curling up as close to it as she could without singeing her hair. "All right. You got me out of bed and into a bad mood, so now please get me back into bed."   
"Huh?"   
"State thy case."   
"Oh. It's not a case. But anyway, did you ask her yet?"  
"Ask who?"   
"You know who!"   
"Ask who about what?"   
"Lily, stop being difficult!"   
"All right, all right. But I do wish I'd demanded payment. What I put up with to get what I did get out of her cost me the front part of my tongue, a load of patience, and a lot of acting. I'm certainly going to get the lead role in any play I decide to try out for after this."   
"Come on!"   
"Fine, fine. All right, I did get from her that she did like Sirius last year, that she likes someone this year who is a third year, a boy, a Gryffindor…ooh, what was his name? It wasn't Longbottom, it wasn't Remus…ooh, it's on the tip of my tongue–"   
"Lily, honestly!"   
"Umm…it wasn't Sirius, at least not this year, I know him very well–let's see, could be Peter, could be-"   
"Lily!"   
"Could be Taylor Young, you know that redhead who never talks,–hey, she said he played Quidditch–it could be John, now, couldn't it? Or Nigel, or that Joseph DeVonn character, or–"   
"LILY!"   
"All right, all right, I give. Yes."   
"Yes what?"  
"Yes."   
"YES WHAT?"   
"Oh, James, it's just so much fun to make you mad, do you know that?"   
"And?"   
"Well, it is."   
"Well? What about—what about Serena?"   
"What about her?"   
"Lily, please stop! What did she say?"   
Lily rolled her eyes a few times. "Thank goodness I'm not into all this stuff. I'd be a walking stress model."   
"Oh, come on. Lily, please!"   
Lily looked at the tousle-headed figure in green and blue plaid pajamas, kneeling at her feet, begging for something. She started to laugh.   
James jumped up quickly and clapped his hand over her mouth. "Do you want the whole Tower down here? Shut up!"   
"All right." Lily shook herself loose, stretched out on the couch, and closed her eyes.   
"What are you doing?"   
Lily sighed. She reached for the quill, inkwell, and bit of parchment someone had left lying on the table, wrote something, and pushed it over to James.   
  
You told me to shut up.  
He read it quickly, frowned, and crumpled the note up. "Lily, honestly! Please, can't you see how important this is to me? I'm begging you!"   
Lily's mouth softened into a ridiculing smile as she saw James kneeling at her feet, pulling at her blankets.   
"All right. I give. Yes."   
"Not that again! Yes what?"   
"Yes. She told me she liked you. A lot."   
His face lit up and he sprang to his feet, beaming all over his face. Lily thought to herself that she'd never seen him so happy.   
"Truly? You—you're not lying?"   
She smiled. "No. I'm not. I don't suppose I have to ask if you're satisfied, but I'm going to bed." She picked up her blankets and trailed up the stairs to her dormitory. James followed her and plucked at her sleeve."Um—Lily?" "What?"   
"Do you mind doing me another big favor?"   
"Ten Galleons."   
"Really—That is, I'll pay you as soon as—"   
"James Potter, you really have gone soppy over her, haven't you? Depends on the favor."   
"Erm…" He looked very nervous and tongue-tied. "Do you think you can get her to go to Hogsmeade with me tomorrow?" "We have a Hogsmeade visit?"

"The things I go through. All right, fine, but you're paying for everything I decide to buy in The Three Broomsticks. Don't worry, I won't intrude on any private conversations!" she added at seeing his rather horrified face. "I will do my best. But now go to bed!"   
The next morning, Lily cornered Serena as they were stepping into the carriages that were to convey then to Hogsmeade.   
"Serena, I need to talk to you."   
"Why are–Oh, fine. What about?"   
"James."   
Serena pulled Lily into the carriage, slammed the door, and faced Lily. "What about him? You didn't tell him, did you?"   
"What–No. I didn't. But he asked to talk to me."   
Serena's eyes narrowed. "Proceed."   
"It was last night in the common room, and he asked me if I could manage to get you to meet him in The Three Broomsticks today. I told him I would do my best. What time do you want him to be there?"   
Serena laughed gaily. "Tell him I'll be there as soon as I can get out of these musty carriages."   
Lily nodded. "I've become the regular messenger girl, haven't I?"   
She jumped out of the carriage door and managed to get into the one James was in before the carriages started to move.   
"Well? Did you ask her?"   
"Yes."   
"And?"   
"And what?"   
"Exactly. And what?"   
"You're getting better at this." Lily wrinkled her nose. "She's meeting you in that pub as soon as she can get out of 'these musty carriages'. Quote unquote."   
He smiled slowly, then stared out of the window for the rest of the trip, not bothering to acknowledge her presence.  
When the carriages finally stopped, Lily had to stand back as a charcoal-headed blur raced past her out of the door.   
"Anxious, are we?"   
She stepped down, right into a blast of cold wind. She saw James leading Serena, who was clutching her cloak around her and looking the very picture of a maiden in distress, to the entrance of The Three Broomsticks. She shook her head and vanished into the joke shop.   
A few minutes later, she re-emerged with bright red cheeks and a wish for the common room fire. Not wasting an instant, she stepped into the small pub.   
It was welcomingly warm inside, and she didn't waste an instant ordering a large butterbeer and stepping over to the two tables pushed together in a corner, seating Sirius, Remus, Peter, Miranda, John, and several others.   
"Hi, all!"   
They looked up. "Oh, hi, Lily. Join us?"   
Lily shrugged. "Precisely what I came over here to do." She slipped into a chair between Sirius and Miranda. "Did I interrupt an extremely important conversation?"   
Sirius shrugged. "Depends on whose point of view you're looking at this. From James' view, yes, you interrupted something as important as life and death–"   
"Pain and death. As important as pain and death. Without pain, this world would have severe problems. Proceed."   
"This world does have severe problems."   
"There is that. But go on."   
"Well, from his point of view, as I said, you should be lying dead, even though he isn't here. From ours, you came at just the right time."   
"I did? Oh, good. For once–How? For what?"   
John jerked his thumb over his shoulder. Lily peered around he shoulder and caught sight of a very secluded table, with two occupants.   
"Well, how was I on time?"   
"You acted as their messenger girl, didn't you?"   
"What do you mean?"   
Nigel sighed. "You gave them their little messages for each other and got them here together, didn't you?"   
"Well, yeah. So?"   
"That was stupid."   
"Sirius, shut up. How?"   
Remus frowned, Nigel played with his nails, and Sirius sat there, pretending he had no idea of what was going on and why he was sitting at a table with absolute lunatics.   
"How?"   
Miranda scowled in James' general direction. "They're planning on ditching you as soon as possible."   
"What–How–When and where?"   
Jacqueline de Forté, the reserve Gryffindor Beater, patted Lily on the shoulder.   
"Lily, it's not your fault, they're just a bunch of airheads. We just overheard them talking, and what they were saying basically amounts to this; 'She's done what we needed done, now we get rid of her.'"   
Lily's eyes were open and wide, hurt and stunned. "So what you're trying to say is that they used me?"   
Sirius flinched. "Yeah, pretty much."  
He stooped down to glance at her face, which had drooped down to meet the front of her robes. "Are you all right?"   
She snapped back up. "Couldn't be better."   
"Really?"   
"Truly. I'm all right. Need to be alone for a minute, though. Excuse me." She stepped away from the table, knocking her chair over, and walked out without bothering to pick it up. Sirius and Remus looked terribly worried. "Do you think she's all right?"

Nigel shook his head. "She should be. We didn't tell her the other half."   
"Other half of what?"   
"You remember what Serena hinted. They're going to try to turn the whole darn school against her when they make her wand slip and make one of the Quidditch players fall off of his broom at the next match."   
"Oh, that. It better not be me!"   
"John, it's going to be one of us. Me, Nigel, Anya, or Ashley."   
"What about Joseph?"   
"Are you kidding? The whole darned school'd applaud if she knocked him into the mud!"   
Outside, a moody redhead was ambling down the lane, bumping into people and staring blankly at their "Excuse you!"'s. She had no expression whatsoever on her face, unless you counted, well, nothing. Which no one really did.   
She made her way up to the Shrieking Shack, where she leaned on the top rail of the fence and stared dreamily out into space, jumping about a mile when she felt a touch on the shoulder.   
"Lily?"   
"Serverus–oh, hello." She turned back to wind-watching.   
"Lily, are you all right? You left The Three Broomsticks in a sort of–well, twisted way. Like you were going to commit suicide is what your face looked like. Are you all right?"   
Lily sighed and turned to her friend. "Serverus, I don't know what I did wrong."   
"Neither do I. But then, I'm not sure of all the facts."   
"Mmm."   
"That was a not-so-subtle hint. You still haven't answered my question."   
"Oh–I–"–Lily broke down. For the first time in weeks, her eyes started to fill with tears. Half blinded, she flung her arms around Serverus' neck, hanging onto him as if he were her lifeline. Very stunned and antsy, he patted her back a bit.   
Lily regained control of herself fairly quickly. She pulled away, wiping her cheeks with the back of her hand. "I'm sorry. I just needed a hug. Badly." Leaning onto the rail again, she clutched it so hard her knuckles started to turn white and Serverus had to detach them from the fence.   
"Lily, you're gonna break the wood if you keep that up. Come on." He took her arm and led her back down the lane.   
"Where're we going?"   
"I'm taking you back. If you stay in Hogsmeade, you're very likely going to run into Potter, and right now I have a feeling that isn't going to go over so well."   
"Back where?"   
"They have a new study corner in the library, with couches and a fire. We can talk there."   
Gratefully, Lily re-dried her eyes. "Serverus, thanks so much."   
"For what?"   
"I'm not sure. Everything."  
They reached Hogwarts shortly afterwards, and Serverus took Lily straight to the library. He pulled her down onto one of the couches and sat down himself.   
"Lily, tell me. Trust me, you'll feel a lot better once you get all of this out."   
"All right." Lily was hiccuping softly and shaking a bit, but she tried her best to sit up straight and keep her face dry. Managing to stay somewhat in control of herself, she related the whole story to Serverus, hardly stopping for breath. At the end of her narrative, she shuddered, then leaned against his shoulder, he with a drawn and pinched countenance.   
"Lily, I'm so sorry this had to happen to you."   
"Don't be sorry. I was stupid."   
"You weren't. It wasn't your fault, and don't you dare blame yourself for it."   
"Yes, sir."   
"Are you sick?"   
"No. Overly depressed and hurt and dehydrated and weak and wobbly and tired, yes. Sick, no."   
He searched her face, looking for something he didn't find. Then, with a sigh, he heaved himself up off of the sofa.   
"C'mon. I'm taking you to Gryffindor Tower."   
"You know where it is?"   
"I have the general direction down. Yes."   
"All right." Lily wiped her eyes one last time and submitted to being pulled gently out of the library. Two corridors away, Lily stopped.   
"It's probably best you stop here. I know for a fact you're not allowed inside the common room." She turned away, but Serverus pulled her back.   
"Lily, a word of advice. James can convert people pretty quickly into thinking what he does, and I'd not stay in the common room if I were you. Go to your old dormitory. I mean–that is–if you want to. Please don't think I'm trying to order you around. I'm not."   
Lily half-smiled. "I didn't think so. Thank you so much. I–I don't know anyone else here at Hogwarts that has been a better friend to me than you. This year," she added. "I don't mean to sound all mushy, but you're the best friend I think I've ever had. Thank you." Her expression was sincere, and Serverus had no doubt that she meant what she said. Though it did take him quite a bit off his guard.   
"Er–you're welcome. I didn't do anything, though, did I?"   
Pushing her hair behind her ears, Lily grinned. "You did much more than you think you did." She rounded the corner, feeling more secure and loved than she had in days. Not love-loved, she told herself, pushing open the portrait door, just friend-loved. And with what she had been through, that was the only kind that mattered.  
She didn't take Serverus' advice on one point; she headed for the fire in the common room. It was empty, as was most of the school except for a few second, first, and seventh years, who hadn't gone to Hogsmeade. Amanda was sitting by the fire with Eva, both of them immersed in a chess game.   
"Amanda. Eva. Hi."   
They looked up. "Oh, hi, Lily. Not going to Hogsmeade?"

"Already been? You couldn't have spent three hours there!"   
Eva shushed Amanda with a movement of her hand. "'Manda, something's wrong. Lily, what happened?"   
Lily sighed. Eva was right, there was something wrong, but she didn't know if it was best to tell her what had happened.   
"Nothing."   
"Liar. Lily, I know you too well. What's wrong?"   
"I'm not telling anything this afternoon. Not today."   
Eva looked worried. "Are you sure? You might feel a lot better."   
"I've already told someone. I do feel better, but now I think that telling anyone else might bring everything back that I'm trying to forget."   
"Well, can we go to that someone?"   
Lily slowly nodded. "I don't think I'd mind. Yes. Go ahead."   
"Well, who did you go to?"   
"Serverus."   
"Snape? You went to him, of all people? Why not to someone nicer or–well, more understanding, or at least friendlier. Why go to that overgrown bat?"   
Lily's eyes flashed dangerously, and Amanda shrank back. "He's my friend, and I have a right to go to whomever I wish to go to for consolation. I'm going to bed." With that, she pushed herself off of her chair and stalked up the dormitory stairs, not so much angry as terribly tired. She didn't heed the calling of her old school friend behind her.   
"To bed? Lily, it's not even three yet!"  
She woke from her nap around six, and she found the dormitory empty. Shaking her hair away from her face, she slipped into her shoes and made for the Great Hall, where the rest of the school would be eating. The common room was empty, and she headed out of the portrait door as fast as she could.   
Lily entered the Great Hall and stepped towards her usual seat for the past month; the one she had held at the beginning of last year, though Sirius was shooting warning glances at her not to come any closer. She therefore wasn't surprised to find Serena in her seat and Diana and Elspeth where Eva and Miranda usually sat.   
"Hi! Any room left for me?"   
James looked her up and down coldly. "No." He turned back to his food.   
Lily pressed her lips together. "Well then. Someone's in a bad mood. What happened?"   
He didn't pay her any mind, not even turning to look at her. Serena did, however.   
"What are you doing here?"   
"I might ask you that same question. You're in my seat."   
"It's mine now. I got here first."   
"You did. So?"   
"So this is going to be my seat from now on. Go to your little second-year friends, and leave us alone."   
Lily raised her eyebrows. "You're being a regular little fanged serpent."   
"Yeah, well, you're being a rampaging cow. You're not wanted here, so leave, why don't you?"   
"Because I'm already here, and because I don't feel like leaving just yet. I used to be wanted, or at least accepted, so what happened?"   
"You don't deserve to be accepted among us."   
"I used to be. James used to beg me to deliver messages to you. And vice versa."   
"Exactly. Used to be. That was when you were useful."   
James didn't look up. "You tell her, Serena."   
Sirius frowned, but his comment was drowned out by Serena's spiteful remarks.   
"You're not useful any more; you're a regular little Orc. Go somewhere else and amuse yourself with your rabble."   
"Why should I?"   
"Because I said so, that's why. Leave us in peace."   
Lily shrugged. "I don't mind. I'd rather sit among a herd of asps than here with you. Goodbye. I go now to my rabble." She whirled, leaving Sirius and Remus behind with very relieved expressions.  
  
Later that night as she sat playing checkers with Sirius, the portrait opened and James and Serena climbed in, both of them smiling and chattering excitedly. They stopped, however, once they got within three feet of Sirius and Lily.   
"Sirius, what're you doing with her?"   
Lily pushed Sirius back into his chair and faced James squarely. "He's playing checkers. Anything else you want to ask?"   
"Yeah, what're you doing with one of my friends?"   
"Playing checkers with him. I thought that was obvious."   
"Watch your mouth, Evans."   
"I can't. Not unless I stand in front of a mirror all day long, and I don't plan to do that."   
"You're getting too uppity, and I suggest you shut up while you're ahead."   
"Oh, I'm ahead? Thanks for admitting that."   
"Admitting what?"   
"That I'm beating you at retorts."   
Serena pulled gently at James' arm. "James, you promised me you'd help me with my Defense Against the Dark Arts homework." Her musical tones made James turn away.   
"Oh, right, I did. Come on."   
Lily watched them go, with an expression Sirius was rather relieved to see. Disgust.  
Over the next few days, Lily, to the relief of her friends, was seemingly untouched by the treachery of someone she had thought to be her friend. Serena everyone knew she didn't care about, so they didn't trouble themselves about her., and neither did Lily. But James was out of favor with half of the Gryffindors; the rest just didn't care. But out of those that did, he was quite the image of a traitorous worm, and they were all looking forward to the inevitable quarrel all couples had, sooner or later. To everyone's surprise, though, they showed no signs of quarreling at all, not even a friendly spat after two weeks, and the next Quidditch match was drawing near.

James was practicing almost nonstop, and Lily was attending every one of the Slytherin team practices. She was getting very good at fixing small injuries, which Edgar Hatcher was getting even better at inflicting. The team was considering looking for a new Seeker very seriously.   
It was the morning before the Quidditch match; a Saturday, and breakfast time. Tired and stiff, wiping sleep out of her eyes, Lily walked down to the Great Hall, where the mail was being delivered. Sliding into her seat between Miranda and Eva, both extremely excited, she had to jump back as quite a thick letter splashed into the milk jug in front of her.   
Eva drew back instantly, as did Miranda. Neither of them wanted to touch the envelope, which was bright red. Lily couldn't see anything wrong with it, so she was a bit surprised at her friends' reactions. She fished it out a bit tentatively and held it by one corner, waiting for something to happen. The next moment, something did, shaking the dust off of the walls and bright sky-blue ceiling.  
A screaming voice burst out of the scarlet envelope, and Lily immediately understood why Eva and Amanda had stuffed their fingers in their ears. Ringing in her own was a voice she remembered from her first visit to Diagon Alley and last Christmas. Sheila. And, from the sound of things, she wasn't too happy.   
  
Evans, you and me are taking this one outside. You've ruined practically all–   
  
Lily had had enough. Whipping out her wand, she pointed it at the Howler.   
"Percuquo!"   
The whole of the Great Hall watched in astonishment as burning remnants of the Howler fell onto the floor and the voice faded away. Lily shot a triumphant glance over to the Ravenclaw table and slipped back into her seat, under the scrutiny of the whole school.   
She was the first to leave the Hall after breakfast, thinking to herself that if she hated this attention, she'd hate even more being a sort of political ruler.   
Quiet and withdrawn, she dressed for the Quidditch game (Gryffindor against Slytherin) afterwards, purposely pulling out the dark green cloak trimmed with black that she'd worn last winter for the snowball fight. It would come in handy, too, she thought, as there was a strong wind blowing outside. Stepping out of the dormitory and ignoring the amazed stares of the scarlet-clad Gryffindors, she met Severus down in the entrance hall, quite as planned.   
  
"Lily! Well, there's no doubt who you're rooting for. You're honestly willing to go through with this?"   
"I'm wearing a cloak. So what?"   
"So…you're going against your House."   
"If that's the way that works, I'd be going against them all the time unless I changed my eye color. I'm wearing the warmest thing I have, and I'm going to need it. Are we going?"   
"Sure. Slytherin team's already in the locker room. Come on."   
They set off across the grounds. But halfway to the Quidditch stadium, they were pulled up short by an explosion of magenta and blue sparks in front of them.   
A voice echoed across the grounds, obviously not too happy.   
"Snape, you can go. I need a word with Evans."   
Sheila came walking across the lawn, taking her precious time.   
"Evans, what did you do that for?"   
"Do what? Put out your Howler? I didn't want to get my eardrums blasted out. I thought that was obvious."   
"No. You know very well what I mean. It has to do with James and Sikora."   
"Oh–getting them together? You have my word that I regret that as much as I regret ever being his friend."   
Sheila's eyes narrowed, and Lily fully expected her to sprout a forked tongue and start slithering on the ground. "Do you know how much that hurt me?"  
"To be honest, no."   
"I need to speak to you. Alone." She eyes Serverus meaningly, and Lily sighed, but nodded.   
"Serverus, that was a hint. I'll see you at the Quidditch match." She set off with Sheila towards the Forbidden Forest.   
"Well? What did I do this time?"   
"You don't know, do you?"   
"No. I wish I didn't have to find out, either."   
"Well, you're going to. Did you know, before you came into the picture, James and I were totally happy?"   
"No."   
"Well, now you do. That even continued up to the beginning of second year. Then something else happened."   
"Let me guess. Serena?"   
"He never showed any interest in her. Never. Even though she tried; I could see that. Then she started picking fights with you, and he immediately rallied to her."   
"Oh, good."   
"Oh, good what?"   
"Finally, someone who doesn't believe that I beat the insides out of her."   
"Of course you didn't. You have more sense than that."   
"Erm–thank you?"   
"Hum. Still, he was still normal around me, and then he begged you to do something. Probably find out what she thought about him."   
"For someone who can't come inside our common room, your guesses are pretty darn good."   
"I'm a jealous woman. We're usually right. But, anyway, when he got her answer, the first thing he did was come right to me. Three guesses as to what he said."   
"You're not wanted any longer, go away and be happy that at one point in time you were favored by the Ultimate Conqueror?"   
Sheila was stunned. "You're good. Did you hear him say that?"   
"No. I guessed. I know him, and that's the kind of thing he'd say."   
"Well, that about sums his speech up. It was really mean, and the last thing he was was gentle."   
"I can imagine."


	17. Something's wrong with the necklace here

"Look–I'm sorry. I didn't know he'd do this to you or to me, come to that, once he'd gotten what he wanted. I really am sorry." She tentatively patted a crying Sheila on the back.   
"If it helps, my old math teacher had a favorite saying. Boys are like lava lamps; pretty to look at but not very bright."   
That sobered Sheila up a bit. Wiping her eyes, she stood back and glared at Lily.   
"Maybe he couldn't help what he did. I don't think he could help it. But you could, Evans. From now on, this is war."   
Lily pressed her lips together. "Well then. What did I do that time?"   
"I should think you'd have the courtesy not to ask." With which parting shot, she stalked over to the Quidditch stadium, filled with scarlet and green blurs and yells.   
"Well, then, that wasn't exactly the best interview, was it?"   
Serverus had stepped out from behind a tree.  
Lily sighed. "You did give me a turn. No, it didn't go very well. I still would like to know, though, what on earth made her hate me. I did hardly anything."   
Serverus shrugged. "I don't know. I don't want to much, either, but I suppose it doesn't matter. You coming to the match?"   
Lily shrugged. "I might as well. Come on."   
They jogged over to the stadium, where Lily took her place between Serverus and Malfoy, who were seated in one of the Slytherin tents. The Slytherin team was ahead, ninety to sixty; the Ravenclaw sixth year was commentating again; though Professor Zimmermann was watching him this time.   
"And there goes Stephen Gregson, flying up the field there…Quaffle in hand…drop it! Drop it, drop–Professor, I wasn't serious!–but there goes Miranda Shaw of Gryffindor, tailing him closely–knock him off his broom, Miranda–oh, good, and there's the Quaffle in her hands, flying towards Gryffindor goal posts–goes to Potter–Thomas–Potter–back to Shaw–and GRYFFINDOR SCORES!–well done indeed!–very nice–oh, and Clive Allen of Slytherin has the Quaffle, flying–oh, dodges Thomas, loops around Miranda, does another loopy thing–hey, Allen, you want to do ballet, the Quidditch field is the WRONG place for that–Professor, it was a joke–harmless little joke–jokes never did anyone any harm, I mean, come on, it wasn't that bad of a–"   
"Cooper!"   
"Oh, right, right, sorry. Anyway, Allen blasting up the field there, does a clumsy loop around Potter, who's obviously too much for him–so he resorts to hitting himself in the eyes with James' elbow–hey no fair! Slytherin penalty. All right, Slytherin Chaser Frank Crichlow heading up the field there, lousy flyer, anyway, aimes, throws–and–Nigel, come on! All right, one ten to Slytherin…Potter has the Quaffle, flying up the field there–does a nice loop around Alton there, and Potter–oh, damn–that was darn, Professor, that was darn! Anyway. Slytherin Keeper Cathryn Clarik pulls off a very good save there, even if I do say so myself, and Potter in possession of the Quaffle again–whoa, wait! That did look very much like the Snitch to me, and it does to Hatcher and MacGregor, hurtling towards that small golden…"   
Lily, watching the two Seekers fly towards the Snitch, suddenly felt herself go limp. Her mind was wiped as if with a sponge, and only dimly could she hear herself shouting something and raising her wand, which she'd forgotten that she had.  
The whole stadium had gone quiet as James' broom fell out from underneath him, and as he fell downwards, towards the two Seekers. They hadn't noticed him falling, and he crashed into Hatcher's broom, making him veer off course. Anya, free of a pursuer, caught the Snitch quickly, rising up into the stadium to cheering; halfhearted cheering.   
Hatcher and James were on the ground, James unconscious. The whole of Gryffindor Tower and half of the rest of the school swarmed down towards the field, and the Slytherin students were looking up at the tent with curiosity, anger, amusement, and puzzlement in their eyes. Lily came back to consciousness, but only for a little while, then she drooped and fell backwards, and everything went black.   
She woke up moments later, with Serverus and Lucius slapping her face. Lily stood up and shrank away, frightened.   
"What–what happened?"   
Lucius' eyes narrowed a bit, mostly from puzzlement. "I have no idea. You were sitting there, and then, out of nowhere, you raised your wand, shouted something, and Potter fell off of his broom."   
Lily's eyes opened wide. "I–I did? But–I don't remember doing anything of the sort! You're lying, aren't you?" She was almost pleading.   
Serverus shook his head. "He's not. You honestly don't remember anything?"   
"No. Nothing. Except that I couldn't feel anything, and I was sort of dreaming. Like nothing could ever hurt me, and like I was a sort of ghost. Or like I was dreaming. Nothing else."   
Her legs, which had supported her this far, gave way and she sank down. Serverus immediately ran towards her.   
"Lily! Are you all right?"   
"No. I feel deathly tired."   
"Besides that, are you all right?"   
"Sure. Sure, fine. Help me up, please. I don't want to face the school, even if I didn't do this."   
Lucius nodded. "Smart girl. Let's go." They were sneaking out of the tent, and as they rounded the lake, Lucius pulled at Serverus' sleeve. Lily didn't hear; she was unconscious again.   
"Do you know what caused this? I believe her when she said she didn't do it."   
"So do I. It was a combination of things, but one of them I can name."   
"What–which one?"   
"Unforgivable. The Imperious Curse."  
They were dragging her to the hospital wing; the best place they could think of, as Lily was continually fainting and growing white, when they ran into Professor McGonagall.   
"Ah. Mr. Snape and Mr. Malfoy. Professor Dumbledore wishes to see Miss Evans. Please escort her there."   
Serverus pulled Lily back up. "Professor, we have to get her to the hospital wing! Look at her!"   
Professor McGonagall shook her head. "I am under instructions to take her to the Headmaster immediately." She swooshed down the hallway, leaving Serverus and Lucius no choice but to follow her.

They stopped in front of the statue of quite a disturbingly ugly goblin. Professor McGonagall cleared her throat.   
"Fudge Fly." The statue sprang to life and jumped aside, revealing a doorway. They went inside, stepping onto a winding stair that lifted them to the top of the tower.   
Serverus helped Lily into a chair, then, under Professor McGonagall's supervision, he was shooed out, leaving Lily alone with the headmaster.  
He pointed his wand at her. "Ennervate!" Lily slowly raised her head, glancing about her surroundings, her glance finally landing on Professor Dumbledore.   
"I have been informed that you have tried to throw a Quidditch player from his broom. Have you any idea where such an accusation came from?"   
The whole darned school. "No, sir."   
"Is there any truth in this accusation?"   
"That depends, sir."   
"Depends on what? Is this a confession?"   
"It depends on the point of view of the person perceiving the happenings."   
"From your point of view, what occurred?"   
I had no point of view. I remember nothing. "I am not entirely sure, sir."   
"I was also informed that you may have used one of the Unforgivable Curses. What do you have to say to that accusation?"   
What the he–who the heck came up with something like that? "Nothing, sir."   
"You do realize that expulsion is the punishment for the use of one of the Unforgivable Curses, do you not?"   
Someone had way too much time on their hands if they're able to think up all of this stuff. "I am entirely aware of that, sir."   
"So you are refusing to tell me anything at all?"   
Lily wanted dearly to laugh; a mad impulse coming over her, but she restrained herself. "That would be my assumption, sir."   
He nodded slowly. "I cannot convict you of such a charge without evidence, and at this point I have none. Although,"–here his eyes twinkled a bit–"let me assure you that, even though I am not supposed to be prejudiced, that I believe I know you too well to think of you doing something like this. Miss Evans, please answer me honestly. Are you enjoying your schooling here?"   
Schooling, yeah, environment–heck no. "I am learning much, sir."   
"Please give me a real answer, Miss Evans. You are not very much attached to your schoolmates?"   
The amount you know about my life here is frightening. "I have several very good friends, sir."   
He sighed. "Miss Evans, please go to the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey is in there." He waved her out, and she left the room, falling into another faint as soon as she closed the door.  
It was lucky that Serverus and Lucius were outside the door waiting for her, because they were the ones that got her to the hospital wing, since Professor McGonagall was gone.   
For the next few days, Lily remained there, hovering between sleep and faint, not eating, not drinking anything but the potions Madam Pomfrey had to force-feed her with. Every time she fell into sleep or a faint, she saw great, looming, scarlet snake-shaped eyes in front of her, advancing, advancing. She'd always wake up in a cold sweat, only to find the other people in the hospital wing awake and cursing, for she had been screaming in her sleep.   
It was only on the fourth day of her confinement that Madam Pomfrey revealed to her that she had an extremely rare reaction to the Imperious Curse. She either would stay in her present state for about a week or so or it would never affect her again, which, the nurse drearily added, was hopefully never to be seen.   
At the end of eight days, she was permitted to return to her dormitory, though she was excused from classes, as she kept losing consciousness. Back in her dormitory, the only friendly thing she found there was Abigail; Elspeth and Diana weren't even looking at her. Lily suspected correctly that the Quidditch match story had been embroidered so much, it could have made the mantle of Marie Antoinette.   
Everywhere she went, people were drawing against the walls, and even Amanda and Vanessa were growing a bit twitchy around her. Sirius, Remus, and the Quidditch team always went mysteriously quiet every time she entered a room they were in, Serverus and Malfoy were being terribly overprotective, following her to classes and to meals, the nervous part of the school was avoiding her anxiously, and the rest, led by Serena, were just plain out nasty.   
Eva was the only one who hadn't changed at all. She never raised her brow so much as an inch if the talk turned to Quidditch or famous games, and she never purposely tried to avoid the subject. She never glanced nervously at Lily's wand or spoke with a tremor in her voice. It was almost as if she never knew the whole episode had happened, and Lily was thankful for that.   
It was drawing close to the Christmas holidays, and, by request of Professor Dumbledore, Lily was staying at Hogwarts, as she kept blacking out about once every four days or so. Most of the school had left, and Lily wasn't surprised, one morning, to wake up and find Abigail and Diana gone, the Tower quiet, and no mobbed chessboards in the common room. It was a wonderful relief.  
She sank into one of the armchairs, watching Eva and Vanessa play Exploding Snap.   
"Lily! It's nine-thirty!"   
Lily sighed. "I know. I was dead tired."   
Eva smiled. "Well, now you have a chance to sleep. Want to play?"   
"Sure." Lily sank onto the rug in front of the fire, lazily watching Eva deal.   
"So, do you know who's staying over the holidays?"   
Vanessa nodded. "Most of them. I think–well, I know Serena and Elspeth are. Heather and Anne–those twins in our dorm who haven't broken the window yet with their snoring–yet–well, they left…so did Amanda…let's see…we have Cora Swinstead and Agatha Knight–they're seventh years–well, they're staying–so're Lucius and Serverus–but you knew that. The Longbottom kid's staying, and so are Sheila and her group. It can't be helped," she added as Lily audibly slumped onto the floor. "Well–Sirius and Remus are here, and–*"   
"Sirius' staying?"  
"You didn't know that? He is. And so is the whole Gryffindor Quidditch team."   
Lily's small smile fell down several stories into the kitchens and into a bowl for used dishes, splashing several house-elves with hot water.

"James too, I suppose that means?"   
"Unless he dropped out–and you know him–he'd never do that."   
"Wish I didn't know him."   
Eva stood up, moved towards Lily, and put an arm around her shoulders. "Lily, don't you think you two were happier when you were friends?" She was gentle, but Lily still snapped away.   
"Even if we were, this can't be fixed. Not anymore. Not after Sikora came in and I got put under the Imperious Curse. Which no one believes but you two."   
Eva and Vanessa looked at each other as if to say, "You know, she's right." She was, too.  
They eventually got back to Exploding Snap. Lily didn't need to go down to the Great Hall for breakfast, as Eva had swiped a dozen scones, quite a bit of bacon, and a jar of marmalade. Vanessa went back down to get a pitcher of milk, and as soon as the portrait door closed behind her, James and Sirius came romping down the boys' dormitory stairs., James terribly wet and Sirius terribly amused.   
"That was not funny."   
"For Pete's sake, James, can't you take a joke?"   
"No–yes–no–oh, shut up."   
"It's not my fault. You set it off; I just installed it."   
"How was I to know that the way to get ice-cold water dumped over your head was to sit up in bed?"   
"Never sit up in bed. Nasty habit. I never do."   
James snorted, wringing out his pajamas and dumping about three-fourths of a cup all over the carpeting. Lily shook her head.   
"Don't snort. If you make a habit of that, you'll start doing that at the table. Nasty thing, milk, when it comes out of one's nose."   
James raised his eyebrows. "And how would you know?"   
"Experience. That is, making one's sister laugh when she is drinking fizzy things. But milk is best."   
He frowned. "Evans, you're going to be hanged before you're eighteen."   
"Mmm. Witch-hanging days are over. I should think that by now you would have slowly eased into that perception, especially as you never lived during those friendly ages."   
"Friendly?"   
"Oh, of course. Of course, it depends on your point of view. If you're perceiving someone being burnt at the stake, it is always nice to have that fire there to warm one's hands. If, on the other hand, you're tied to the stake, you have lots of fun with the Flame Freezing Charm. The only bad point of view is the fire's, because it gets put out sooner or later."  
"You have problems."   
"Please don't tell me you just noticed that. Your first clue should have been when I thought you were my friend. Then, one eases into the fact that I have a ridiculous cackling laugh, that I can hyperventilate on purpose, with a loud squeaky sound most like a car starting, and finally that I routinely stare at people, faint, and go off into another land."   
"What, la-la land? You know, I could see that."   
"No. The Alendoren Cove off of the coast of Albania. La-la land is so third year."   
"Wh–what?"   
"Go away. If you do, you'll sound less stupid, because you won't be sounding. At least not in my ears, which is the important thing."   
James was clearly trying not to pull out his wand. "You better watch it, Evans."   
"It as in it? Or it as in IT. Or as in It? Or just as in–go-away-leave-me-alone-it?"   
"Follow your own advice."   
Lily shrugged. "Fine." She stood up, dodged the sparks flying at her from James' wand, and shot up the dormitory stairs, leaving behind a rather puzzled common room.   
"What got into her?"   
"This is Lily we're talking about."   
"Never mind. I shouldn't have asked. She's capable of anything. Remember what she did to James?"   
The rest of the Gryffindors started to buzz excitedly about the events at the last Quidditch match, and Lily, hiding behind an open door, listened with a rather cold expression on her face.  
She shook her head, which drooped a bit. "I really should stop with the smart comebacks. They do nothing for me." Debating on whether or not to give up her fun, she stepped into her dormitory, then stopped dead in her tracks.   
The night before, she had removed her necklace and placed it under her pillow for safekeeping. It seemed that she needed to find a better, more secret place, for Serena was rolling the midnight-blue stone around in her palm. Discarded lay the gold chain on the floor, she had obviously kicked it half underneath the bed. Lily dashed into the room, and Serena jumped up, trying to hide the stone.   
"Sikora, give that back right now."   
"Give what back?"   
"Don't play innocent with me. The necklace. Or at least, what's left of it. Hand it over."   
Mulishly scowling, Serena threw the stone across the room and ran out.   
Lily bit her lip as she dashed over to the stone. Strangely, it had not cracked, and it hadn't broken. She fitted it back into the gold claw-settings with ease and fastened it around her neck, boiling with anger.   
"Serena's going to get herself killed one day. And I'll applaud whomever does it, if it isn't me. Which it probably will be." Tucking it under her robes, she bent down to retrieve her cloak from the floor. The necklace, though pushed under loose robes, managed to fall out and knock against the bedstead. With hardly any blackness at all, Lily immediately found herself on a rock in the Alendoren Cove again.  
Lily drew several deep breaths and pulled her necklace out to examine it. It looked just the same as usual, but something had obviously happened to it.   
"I'm going to kill Serena when I get back." She tucked it back under her robes, then, glancing up, her eyes fell onto two people sitting on the water's edge, one in the inch of sea, the other on the sand. Tom and Litharelen.   
Lily tried to duck out of sight, still a bit edgy about Tom, but Litharelen saw her first.   
"Lily! C'mon over here!"

Lily gripped the sides of the rock as hard as she could, then slipped off and started jogging through the pale tan and white sand, warm and fine. She reached Litharelen and Tom in no time, and she stood for a bit, nervously looking at Tom.   
He realized soon that she wasn't any too comfortable and stood up as well, shaking the sand off of his robes. "Lily, you're scared of me?"   
Lily stared at him. "Just a little."   
"Was it because of what I did last time I saw you?"   
"Oh, of course not. Last time we met, it was positively friendly. I do so love to be attacked by people with blazing red eyes who are formed from tea leaves."   
He squinted a bit in the bright sunlight. "I told you–never mind. I didn't. I am now, though. I'm sorry."   
"Don't ever do that again."   
"I got out of control."   
"I could tell."   
Litharelen rolled over on her stomach, propping herself up with her hands, elbows in the sand. Her long, silvery tail splashed the water, which, Lily noticed, looked perfectly ordinary on the surface. "What did Tom do this time?"   
"Oh–nothing, really. His eyes just went all red, and he started to get all angry, and to tell you the truth, I never want to come across him when he's angry, ever again."   
Litharelen laughed. "I've never really seen him angry."   
"Be thankful."   
Tom coughed loudly. "So…Lily, how exactly did you land here this time? Was it on purpose?"   
Lily, strangely wary of him, shook her head. "No. I just landed here. I have no idea why. As usual."   
"Oh. I–" His voice turned off sharply, and Lily found herself back in her dormitory in milliseconds.  
She picked herself up off of the floor and shook herself, sore all over. Squinting over her shoulder to make sure the dormitory was unoccupied, she then stood up, ran over to her trunk, and threw the necklace inside, vowing to herself never to let that happen to her again.   
"I hate Serena! Oh, honestly, how I hate her! She totally ruined this, and cursed it for all I know."   
The pre-Christmas days passed in a flash, and Lily found herself excitedly chattering with Eva and Vanessa about their anticipated gifts the morning before Christmas. They were in the twins' dormitory, curled up on Eva's bed.   
"I do hope I'll get that package of clothing Mother promised me. I swear, one more day of holidays in these robes and I'll go crazy!"   
"Vanessa, really. I doubt if they'll let you wear blue robes at Hogwarts."   
"You're right…but they haven't forbidden it!"   
"Yet."   
"Oh, Lily, hush. What do you think your parents are giving you?"   
Lily frowned. "I'm not sure. I haven't written them in forever; they're terribly busy and I didn't want to intrude. To tell you the truth, I'm hoping for the electric equipment for my foil."   
"For your who? I mean, your what?"   
"Body cords, metallic jacket, wires…the works. I'm hoping to go to a competition in London over Easter."   
"Lily, you're odd."   
"Thanks."   
"Wasn't meant as a compliment. Anyway, what're you hoping for?"   
"Hum. Besides the electric equipment?"   
"Yeah, that stuff."   
"Well–I'd like a few Agatha Christie novels…and I wouldn't mind the complete Sherlock Holmes collection. Short stories, novels, and all." Lily had recently shown a liking for mysteries, especially murder ones.   
"You're strange. Why not go with that other mystery series–Nancy Drew? It's so much less violent and bloody."   
"Ah, yes, but bloody and violent is life, and there's no use blocking out life."   
"You have so much sense. Shut up."  
Eva hurriedly interrupted. "So, any guesses from anyone as to what the human Barbie is getting from her Ken?"   
Vanessa giggled; Lily started to cackle. "From her Ken. I like that one. I have no idea."   
"I know. Everything that comes to mind is something too Valentines-Day-ey."   
"Isn't it, though!"   
They rearranged themselves on the bed, and Lily started to tell the girls about what she had found Serena doing that day in her dormitory. She hadn't found time till now.   
Eva gasped. "But, Lily, she might have ruined it forever!"   
"That's my worst fear."   
"Well–do you think you could try to go to that A-place and ask Tom to fix it for you?"   
"Albania or the Alendoren Cove?"   
"Both."   
"I knew that. But that's not such a bad idea. I might actually do that! Thanks!"   
Eva smirked. "Very welcome. Do you have anything for him?"   
Lily drew back, thinking hard. "Eva, I don't know him well enough."   
"Well, you don't have to."   
"Well, I don't quite know what he'd want."   
"So? Well, you don't have to. Giving Sirius anything?"   
Puzzled, Lily frowned. "Why should I?"   
"Well…seeing that he's your friend…that sort of thing is natural, isn't it? I mean, come on, you've already got Lucius' and Serverus' presents wrapped, can't you give him a little thought? Or Remus, or Peter."   
Lily sighed. "You're right. I don't have to be a banshee to people who're friends to someone I hate. Just to the people I hate."   
"You don't have to do that either. It ruins your voice."   
"You're still right. All right, come look at that joke shop catalog with me, will you?"  
At around nine, Lily, Vanessa, and Eva found their last gifts and sent in owl-orders to Zonko's in Hogsmeade. They were lying on the bed, strangely tired from a day of doing absolutely nothing. Lily sat up, fast, startling everyone in the dormitory.

"Lily! What?"   
"I've just had an idea. Come with me!" She flitted out of the dormitory door, and Eva and Vanessa, rubbing their eyes, followed.   
They ran all the way to the entrance hall, which was lit only by the torches on the wall. The Great Hall was empty, and it was also rather chilly. Vanessa shivered.   
"Lily, let's go back. This is crazy. What are we doing here, anyway?"   
Lily laughed. She flung open the front doors and dashed out, into the snow.   
"Lily! Are you mad? We can't go out there! It's freezing!"   
They got an ecstatic laugh for an answer, and, running outside, they looked around wildly for their friend. "Lily, where are you?"   
Another laugh made them look towards the side of the castle, where a black-cloaked figure was scaling the walls.   
Lily had been lying on her bed in the dormitory, restless and energized. She wanted something to do, and, just for fun, she imagined what she would be doing if she had wings. She supposed she'd fly around the clouds, dipping and soaring–wait, wasn't the tallest tower in Hogwarts touching the clouds? It was. And if you went out and stood on top of that tree trunk near the lake, which was next to the walls–She had jumped up and raced for the door, ignoring the snow beating the windows. Dashing out of the entrance hall, she found the trunk and, with unexpected ease, lifted herself up, towards the sky.   
She hardly heard the gasps of her friends and the "Come down, come down!" screams. Bathed in moonlight, she lightly stepped from one jutting brick to the other, from one turret to the next, on a planned path she had seen before her in the dormitory. The snow didn't make her slip; on the contrary, she found extra footholds on the rough ice lining the roofs.   
By now, she was standing twenty feet above the ground and moving, moving upwards. She saw the dark crescent moon miles above her, though it seemed to be only ten yards away. Brushing off the years of laziness since she had climbed the trees in her backyard, she clung to one gargoyle and pushed off of the next. She hadn't used her hands and feet like this in forever and it felt wonderful. Free finally of silly rooms and walls, she leaned into the wind and felt herself blown along with it. Down on the ground, her friends were frightened to death and then some.  
"What's she doing? She'll get herself killed!"   
"She's too far away to hear us. I don't know what got into her!"   
"She finally cracked. I told you she's dangerous!"   
"Vanessa, stop. She's having fun. Look at her."   
And, indeed, Lily was. She had never in her life fallen off anything she decided to climb, and this, this–this was beyond anything. The grounds were covered with white, white bordered with the black of the Forbidden Forest. The lake was stormy and wild, dashing white waves of foam against each other and exploding in a shower of droplets. Lily had never enjoyed the civilization of England much; she preferred the untouched land and trees to any row of houses. So now, caught in wonder between the magical beauty of the school and the excitement in the air, she could only laugh.   
Below her, seventy feet below her, Eva and Vanessa clung to each other. From somewhere, they had heard a long, drawn-out howl and a short bark. Then, out of nowhere, the snow in front of them had sunk into itself, in the form of a jumble of footprints. Yet they saw no one and nothing.   
And then, from thin air, four figures materialized in front of them. They recognized them from somewhere, yet they were strangely different. Pale faces, swishing, dark robes, drawn wands, and fanged teeth drew towards the sisters, and, in panic, they screamed.   
Lily was stepping onto the roof of the North Tower by now, and faintly, she could hear her friends scream. Without the slightest bit of giddiness, she looked down.   
Two blonde dots were clinging to the wall, while a clump of dark ones advanced on them. Vanessa screamed again, and Lily, summoning all of her present insanity and her power of voice, sent out a long, shrill, loud, frightening, ecstatic, enraged laugh out over the darkness.   
Down on the ground, the four stopped. They froze in their tracks as the unhumanly sound swept over them, freezing their bones, and when it repeated itself, they fled towards the Forbidden Forest.   
Swift as a sailor, Lily slipped down. It took her hardly two minutes, and she was no more out of breath than the twins were. Actually, she was less out of breath, for seeing her slide down from such a height at such a speed had taken their breath away.   
"Who were they?"   
Eva and Vanessa shook their heads, shivering. "Don't know. Don't want to know either. But Lily, that laugh was brilliant! Scary, yes, insane, yes, but brilliant! You–what're you doing?"   
Lily had bent down to examine the ground. Her keen eyes, enhanced a bit by the magic of the necklace, had spotted a brown bit of something when she was twenty feet from the ground and sliding. She picked it up and unfolded it.   
"What is that?"   
Lily slowly shook her head. "I have no idea. It has Hogwarts drawn on it, though. And look here!" She pointed to a dot labelled "The Whomping Willow". "It has the secret passage on here!"  
Eva scrambled over. "What? Where? What secret passage?"   
Quickly Lily folded the paper back up. No matter how much she was fighting with James, she wasn't about to reveal his friend's secret to the world. "Nothing."   
"You're a terrible liar."   
"I know. I need to practice. Come on inside."   
"Oh, good. Why this sudden desire for inside?"   
"I want to see if any of those four were Gryffindors. We'll see them come inside the common room if they are."   
Vanessa shook her head. "You can. I'm going to bed." She did, too, as soon as they stepped inside the common room. But Eva and Lily placed themselves behind a couch with a small hole in the back of it, through which they could watch the portrait hole. The clock struck ten, then eleven. At eleven thirty, Eva fell asleep, despite all the chocolate she had been eating to stay awake.


	18. Yeah, the necklace is definitely going s...

Lily, still strangely excited, wasn't in the least bit tired, and, after pushing Eva underneath the sofa, which had about a foot of room underneath, she propped her back against the back of the sofa, pulled out her drawing pad, and started to sketch.   
At twelve, the mummy in its sarcophagus was coming along nicely, and she was starting to shade. She was getting very good at drawing; Serverus had given her a few lessons. Suddenly, she tensed and pressed her ear to the sofa.   
Her ears, also enhanced by the necklace's magic, were picking up soft footsteps outside the portrait and a whispered, "Puritan hysteria". Quiet as the growing of grass, Lily set her sketchbook aside and put her eye to the hole in the sofa.   
The portrait creaked, though nothing appeared in the doorway. For a long minute, Lily watched the opening and saw nothing. Then, out of nowhere, a voice resounded through the common room, a voice Lily was unfortunately all too familiar with.  
"All clear. They're not watching."   
"Are you sure?"   
"There's no one there. Take this thing off!"   
And, after closing the portrait, a figure materialized out of warm air, just as the four figures had done on the lawn. James spit out a mouthful of bright, blindingly white teeth with blood on the tips and removed his ragged and torn cloak. He wiped his sleeve across his face and Lily noted that the pale color came off onto his robes. He turned to the wall.   
"All right, come out! No one's there; they'd have come out by now. Anyway, we don't want to take it off in the dormitory. Longbottom tattles too much."   
Another voice spoke. Lily knew this one well, too.   
"You have a point. Peter, get off!" Sirius appeared, shaking something invisible off of his arm. "God's nightgown, you're the scariest little worm I've ever seen! Get out from under there!"   
Remus emerged, scowling. "Peter, it wasn't as if we broke any laws, come on, we're not going to be sent to Azkaban for this!"   
The invisible Peter whimpered. "But–but we broke a school rule!"   
James snapped. "Peter, shut up. Give me my cloak!"   
Whining and pouting, Peter threw off a silvery something, which he handed to James.   
"Peter, I swear, if you keep this up, you're never going with us again!"   
Peter cringed. "No–-I promise-I'll stop. But don't you think–"   
"PETER!"   
Remus grabbed James' collar. "Shh! They'll hear you!"   
James pulled his collar away. "Who 'they'?"   
"Well, all of those nice sleeping students, for instance."   
Lily smirked. She noiselessly stood up, startling all of the boys half out of their robes. "And the awake ones."  
It had quite the effect she wished for. The boys all jumped, looked terribly guilty, Peter sank to the floor, Sirius tried to hide the silvery cloak Peter had thrown off, and Remus and James just sat there, openmouthed.   
James was visibly shaking. "How–what–where–?"   
Lily sighed, a long, drawn-out sigh, sounding innocent but fooling no one. "Oh, absolutely nothing. I didn't see anything. Not even that you own an Invisibility Cloak and were outside at midnight. I know nothing whatsoever of that."   
James drew a deep breath. "You mean you won't tell?"   
Politely puzzled, Lily looked up at him?"   
"Tell what?"   
"Oh, good. Thanks so much–"   
Lily couldn't resist interrupting. "But, of course, cross-questioning by a teacher may make me reveal many things which I do not know, and–"   
"Lily! Please!"   
"Please what?"   
"You cold-hearted little wretch!"   
"That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me. Thank you so much."   
James shook his head. "We're going to have to modify her memory. Remus, you're best at this, come on!"   
Remus just sat there, staring, and James sighed loudly. He picked up his own wand and pointed it at Lily, who just sat on the sofa, smiling disconcertingly up into his eyes.   
"Geez, woman, stop looking at me like that! All right. Obliviate!"   
A stream of glittering gold shot out of his wand, and swirled around Lily. It didn't hit her, though, and it didn't affect her.  
Lily was seeing the room in a golden glow, and, on the alert for anything strange, she touched the elf-nymph necklace, which she had put back on that morning. It was growing hot, exerting energy, and the midnight-blue pendant was turning white. Clouds of smoke, gray-white smoke, were swirling around inside it, fast, making the outside start to burn with a smoldering fire. Her throat, where the necklace hung, did not start to blister, but instead turned slowly into a patch of creamy silver, the color of Litharelen's skin. The patch spread quickly, until every bit of her body was covered in silver, and then the gold around her faded.   
James, Sirius, and Remus had slumped onto the floor along with Peter, staring at Lily. The former tousled red-head with a pale tan complexion and deep forest-green eyes had vanished, and in her place stood a creature none of them had ever seen before. She had silver skin, glowing with a beautiful pale moon color, pointed ears, deep green eyes criscrossed with silver thread, and deep burgundy hair streaked with silver strands. She didn't increase in size, but her attire changed, and on her figure appeared a long, silky white gown, flowing about her feet as if in a warm breeze. The necklace she wore had changed, too. The smoky gases had diminished, leaving behind a deep green, the perfect match of Lily's eyes, surrounded with silver talons and hung on a chain of the same metal. And the strangest thing was that Lily appeared unaware of her transformation–if this still was Lily.  
It was, and Lily, sitting on the sofa, had no idea of what was going on. The only thing she knew was that the golden glow had gone away.   
"James, you need to work on Memory Charms. That one obviously backfired."

He stared at her. "Well, of course it did, if you're wearing that piece of Dark Magic!"   
She was the one to stare now. "What piece?"   
"Um–nothing."   
Lily stood up and advanced towards him. He sprang up and hid behind Sirius, leaving Lily behind, quite puzzled.   
"Wh–what're you so scared of?"   
A scream behind her interrupted anything anyone had been planning to say. Eva was letting out a piercing yelp that shattered everyone's eardrums.   
"Eva, shut up!"   
"Lily! Just look at yourself!"   
Lily's bewildered gaze cleared into a look of fright, and she dashed upstairs to her dormitory, followed closely by Eva and the boys, who started after them a few seconds after.   
They gathered in the exercise room, which, besides including mats, barres, and balance beams, had a whole wall covered in a mirror. Lily stared at herself and didn't say a word.   
"Um–Lil?"   
No sound.   
"Lily?"   
No sound.   
"Are you all right?"   
No sound.   
"Lily, ANSWER ME PLEASE!"   
No sound.   
Eva turned to Sirius. "I don't know what happened. She's gone officially insane."   
"That happened the day she was born."   
"James, shut your mouth."   
"Oh, good, you got her talking. Lil, are you all right?"   
"Fine. Eine. I've just acquired silver skin, silver highlights, silver junk in my eyes, a dress I know I never owned, pointy ears, and–" she lifted her hands to her eyes–"silver nails. Am I all right? Mentally, I never have been, now I'm not physically." She turned away from the mirror, trying to hide the gleam of fright springing up in her eyes and masking it with annoyance. She didn't succeed. "Lily, we know you're scared. I mean, so are we, but–"   
"So I'm Lily now? Not Evans and not an electrocuted pheonix and not a rampaging cow and not an Orc?"   
"Lily, please!"   
"Please what?"   
"Well–stop being sarcastic like that!"   
Instead of answering, Lily advanced on him, eyes slitting in summoned anger and lips drawing back from pearly-white teeth. She raised her left hand as if to claw him, and, two seconds later, the door had slammed and Lily was hanging onto Sirius, shaking with laughter.For days after that, James had been quite polite to her, and even Serena had curbed her tongue. The Gryffindors, the ones that had cursed at her and insulted her at every bend after the Quidditch match, were now reasonably polite. The funny thing was that Lily didn't care. She had no feeling left that would even let her hate the Gryffindors, or the school for that matter, so it was as one to her if they were cold and cruel or kind and welcoming. They had been terribly mean to her when she did care, so now, when all of a sudden all feeling was wiped away, she could stare in the faces of the insults and stamp on them, not bothering to do the easy thing and turn aside.   
Her funny elf-nymph appearance had faded in seconds, almost as soon as James left the room. Now, she was as back to normal as she could get, besides the unavoidable fact that her necklace kept swirling with forest-green and grayish-white smoke every time she got passionately angry. Which happened a lot, these days.   
Christmas had passed in a flash. The only thing she had received was a new package of books from her parents, along with a black shirt with "I'm only wearing black till they make something darker" written on it from Remus, who had noticed that whenever possible, Lily wore all of the dark things she could find. Eva and Vanessa had given her a package of records they got from their cousin, who worked at the Wizarding Wireless Network, and Sirius had given her two small teddy bear earrings with red-and-green scarves.   
Lucius had sent her a huge box of all the joke items his parents would allow him to get at Hogsmeade, with an inscription on the cardboard box:   
  
_I thought this might come in handy, seeing that you'd love to blast Potter's head off and I'd love to help. Lucius._  
  
Serverus, though, had given her something she valued most. She knew it couldn't have been cheap; seeing that it was made out of feathery light velvet and trimmed with brocade lace. It was a long black cloak, reaching down to her ankles but not trailing on the floor, surrounded with black lace, which scalloped in drooping vines around the edges. It was fastened in front with an ebony buckle, and when Lily wore this in the dark, the only way to ascertain her presence was if she made a sudden movement and dislodged something.   
She went at once to Serverus after she had opened it, to ask him to take this back, that it was too good for her, but he told her flat out that if she gave it back, he'd let the cats in his dormitory have fun with it. He didn't want it back, so the only thing for her to do was thank him graciously, with glowing cheeks.   
The Friday after Christmas, Lily was awakened at about two in the morning by a rustle outside her bedroom door. She was awake instantly and out of bed in the next second. Her nightgown, another gift from her parents, was dark and long, yet with a wide skirt that didn't hinder her running. Without losing an instant, she slipped into her cloak and was out of the door, flitting around like a noiseless bat in the dark.Down in the common room, which glowed with a faint orange from the dying fire, Lily stopped, pressing herself against the wall. She had heard a whisper, and a silent reprimand, and a footstep. Her ears were picking up the slightest movement in the common room and beyond its walls even, and she was listening with bated breath to the conversation of two people that were climbing out of the portrait hole. Just as it was swinging shut, she slipped out after the two, who, by their whispers, she judged to be Sirius and James. The halls were dark, completely dark, and as she flew down the dismal corridors, she blessed her stars for the short lifespan of torches.

She heard the footsteps, only three yards ahead of her, turn into an alcove, which almost hid the statue of a Grecian goddess in the gloom. A wand appeared, and Sirius' voice was muttering.   
"Muidnessid."   
The arm of the goddess, whom Lily recognized to be Artemis, reached out and opened the wall behind her. Lily bit her lip and, quivering on the spot from excitement, watched the brick door pull away to form a small cupboard. She watched excitedly as a hand appeared and pulled out a stack of books from the cupboard. On moving forward several inches, she caught sight of the cover on one of them. It was the Animagi book she'd seen James hurriedly pull out of sight last year when she went to the library to persuade him to go the Quidditch practices. With its leathery cover and gold Old English lettering, it was unmistakable, and comprehension started to dawn on Lily.   
Mind on the alert, she followed the boys all the way outside, all the way across the gardens. Luckily for her, the moon was gone, and there was no light to be thrown on the snow. Nevertheless, if they had looked backwards, they might have seen her.   
They paced along until they reached a rather formidable tree, one Lily had never been too close to. She now knew why. As soon as they drew within reach of the branches, it started to flail and thrash towards her and the boys; obviously being able to see through Invisibility Cloaks, which Lily guessed the boys must be wearing.   
Then, James drew out from under the cloak and ran towards a long stick. With it, he pushed a knot on the side of the willow and instantly, it froze. James regained the safety of the cloak and Lily saw footsteps appear in the snow all the way to a small hole in the ground between two large roots of the Willow. The weeds rustled a bit at the entrance, and then all was still.   
Lily didn't need an instant to make up her mind. She slid right in after them and found herself in a long, earthy hallway. Remembering the story Remus had told her about the Shrieking Shack, she guessed correctly that this was the passage he used. Silently and quickly, Lily flitted along the dark and dirty corridor, eyes, ears, and wits sharpened.  
Abruptly, she came across crude steps carved into the earth in front of her. She picked her way up, doing her best not to dislodge any clods of dirt or rocks.   
Her head came up in one of the rooms of the Shrieking Shack. Lily winced as she saw blood spots on several torn-up chairs and thought to herself that that explained Remus' cuts that he usually had after the full moon. Hearing voices come from the next chamber, she darted towards the doorway. Her lips curved in an enchanting smile as she saw the two boys sitting on an old four-poster, obviously a Hogwarts throwaway, flipping through large and heavy books, taking notes every once in a while.   
She took care to remain in the shadows, and Sirius and James never noticed her entrance. Lily slipped behind the door and dissolved in the darkness.   
James turned a page. "Sirius, does it tell you anywhere how this can go wrong?"   
"I don't think so. I do have the first part down here–look. It tells you your options."   
James leaned over. "Oh, neat. Good. Problem is, that Restricted Section book got taken out."   
"I know. We'd better check Madam Pince's private office library for that."   
"We'll do that tomorrow. I don't blame Dumbledore for removing it, though I wish he hadn't."   
They went on for a while, then, when Sirius' watch shrilly whistled four o'clock, they stood up.   
"Sirius, we'd better be going back. Minky lights the fires at five, and we should be in bed by then."   
"It's four already? We need a Time-Turner."   
Hidden in the shadows, Lily frowned. Time-Turner?   
"Ministry keeps close watch over those–wait. I might ask Serena if her dad could get us one."   
"Yeah, but then she'd want to know what we'd want it for."   
James slumped. "Oh, right. Anyway, let's leave."   
They packed their rolls of parchment and books in a compartment under the floorboards, screwed the ink bottles shut, and stowed them away. Picking up a silvery piece of cloth from the floor, they threw it around them and vanished. Lily saw them go, started after them, but then changed her mind. With a wicked but charming smile curving her cheeks, she moved the floorboards back and took out the book with the leathery cover and the gold writing. Stowing it away under her cloak, she vanished in the gloom of the corridor.   
They emerged from the tree's secret passage and made their way back to the castle. Lily took a rather roundabout way back, slipping in and out of the shadows on the Forbidden Forest. In this way, she was at the portrait door thirty minutes after James and Sirius got there.  
Not in the least out of breath, she halted her steps and put her ear against the portrait door, holding her hand over the Fat Lady's mouth and quenching a surprised question. Her suspicions didn't fail her; someone was in the common room. Two someones, by the sound of it.   
"I think I heard someone, and that's all I can say."   
"James, honestly, you think you heard? You mean we're sitting up for nothing?"   
"Not nothing. If I'm right, I can prevent her from going to McGonagall first thing next morning."   
"Her?"   
"Yes. Her. I know it's Lily."   
"And how do you know that?"   
"Well–I don't know. I only know that I know."   
"Sort of like lovers can sense each other's presence?"   
"Sirius! Stop! She's only twelve, for Pete's sake! And besides, I have Serena."   
"Tell me this: are you ever really happy when you're around Serena? Truly. Doesn't she make you feel inferior and wicked and–well, like a gullible fool?"   
"How would you know how I might feel?"   
"Because that's what you act like."   
"Indeed I do not. Let us change the subject." His voice had gone terribly icy, but Sirius didn't notice, or if he did, he ignored it. "But this one is so much more fun. Tell me the truth, which you haven't done since Serena came into the picture; do you really like Serena?"   
Lily could picture James' horrified expression and the anger that wiped away the horror. "Of course I do! I don't know what I'd do without her!"   
Sirius audibly shrugged. "Well, for one thing, you might be friendly with Lily and her friends. Come on! This fight thing is getting on everyone in the school's nerves, not to mention your own, I'll bet."

"If she wants to apologize, she can. I'll not hinder her."   
"James, even you should know Lily's not that kind of person. At least, not since Serena appeared. She used to apologize if she felt she had to and if it would solve the problem, but now she–she's drawn inside herself. You don't mean to say you haven't noticed that, do you? Can't you at least tell by her expression?"   
"What expression?"   
"Oh, good, so you have noticed. Exactly. She never lets her thoughts show, she never tells anyone what she's thinking. Do you know, you did that to her?"   
"Me?"   
"Oh, yes, you. Of course, you. From the day that you started being mean to her, she started to become more withdrawn, more cold and hard."   
"That's not my problem."   
"It should be. She's turning so heartless and cold–and she doesn't enjoy it one bit."   
"Well, what does that have to do with me?"   
"You drove her to it. You would ridicule her if she showed the slightest bit of emotion–and I know I helped. I'm none too proud of that, either. But think, James, think!"   
Lily, standing outside the portrait hole, had silent admiration in her heart. No one, absolutely no one, not even Eva, had analyzed her so well, and no one had hit on the truth. Except Sirius. She turned her thoughts onto herself, smiling when she came across the hardened qualities she found herself to possess. There was no denying, even though it reaped less friendliness, that this coldness was severely fun, the cruelty she could unleash at will terribly amusing.  
She wished she could listen endlessly to the discourse, but small pattering feet coming up the hall made her withdraw into a dark alcove. Peering out, she saw the form of a familiar house-elf lighting the torches in the hall. Silently, she cursed Minky for coming at just that time, and just as she thought that, Minky turned into the Gryffindor common room through a small door in the brick that wasn't a door but a wall until Minky mumbled something.   
The small elf stepped inside, and Lily pictured James' and Sirius' scowls as they noticed that the pattering feet weren't Lily's. Minky looked up once, grinned all over her green, chubby face, and set to work lighting the fire. As soon as Lily heard Sirius and James leave, she slid inside herself.   
Minky was busy and didn't notice the fairy cloaked in black pressing herself against the wall and vanishing up the shadowy stairs to her dormitory. Lily, still with a normal heart rate but a smug smile on her lips at her luck at finding out James' and Sirius' secret without them knowing that she knew, thought coldly that, last year, she would have raced up here with heart beating and breath coming and going, if she hadn't been discovered first. Which she probably would have been.   
Slipping out of her cloak and secretly blessing Serverus for giving it to her, she slid it underneath a pile of neatly folded clothes in her trunk, hurriedly placed her dark slippers underneath the bed, where their wet state would escape notice, and pulled the covers over her still, calm and collected form.   
Lily never fell asleep that night, but she gave a good imitation of it, tossing and turning in a feigned slumber, crying out muffled and mumbled words without any sense. Words she knew were heard by the whispering forms outside her door, whisperings that had started only a quarter-hour after she climbed betwixt the sheets.  
Lily had watched Serena shoot up in bed as if she had just been shot through the arm, and instantly, she threw on her fluttery dressing gown and tiptoed to the dormitory door, casting strange glances back at Lily, who had quieted her mumblings a bit so as to hear better. She met an invisible form at the door, who quitted his invisibility as soon as she reached him. Slamming her fist into her pillow, Lily saw him: James was playing with a piece of Serena's hair. She caught a few phrases: "Hogsmeade", "expulsion", and "I don't care about me, just so long as you're all right". That last was from James. Summoning her useful phrase: "Eavesdroppers often hear highly useful and instructive things", (from Gone with the Wind, Rhett Butler's observation–Lily loved that story) she lapsed into a more calm dozing appearance and only once in a while frowned and clenched her fists, mumbling.   
"But, James dear, what if they find out?"   
"Serena, I promise, you're safe. I'll tell them I goaded you into it. I'll tell them anything. Anything that'll keep you safe."   
Serena dimpled. "Oh, I'm not worth that much."   
He scoffed. "Of course you are."   
She turned a crimson shade Lily knew was faked, since she could blush just that color without any trouble. "Oh–I don't think so. After all, you're so much of a gentleman you can't help but say this, and I–"   
"Serena, I'm not a gentleman and never will be. I hope–oh, never mind."   
Serena unleashed more of her charm, fluttering her eyelashes and biting her lips. "You hope what?"   
"Nothing. I'll tell you sometime. Coming to Hogsmeade January twenty-fourth?"   
"Oh, is there a visit?"   
"Silly goose, it's been posted for a week now. Meet up with me in the Three Broomsticks?"   
"Oh–that is–" she turned away, blushing again. "I mean–"   
"You mean what? You mean I'm not good enough, is that what you mean, that you're ashamed to be seen in public with me, that you're interested in someone else?" The whisper was swiftly rising to a normal tone.   
"Oh–oh no–James, I'm so sorry!" She laid her white hand on his arm, pleading with watery blue eyes. "Please–no, that isn't what I meant. I just didn't think you wanted me to–look at you. You're a fine Quidditch player, the hero of many matches, you're brilliant and smart and clever and witty and…"   
Lily frowned. "Can't he see that all those words mean the same darned thing?"   
"Oh, James, I'd rather die than desert you!" She hung on his robe, appealing with a distressed entreating tone in her voice. James melted. That ended Lily's eavesdropping session. She was too disgusted to listen, and besides, Elspeth started to stir in her bed. With a quick hug, Serena sped back to her bed, leaving James to throw on his Invisibility Cloak and retreat to his own four-poster, which he did, speedily.  
Over the next few days, Lily sorely wished to expose James' and Sirius' secret study of Animagi to the school, seeing that wherever she went, she seemed to come across James and Serena, and the sight just somehow made her sick. Sirius spoke truth when he said she was numb to all emotions; it was truth except for one. Disgust was still left in her, and she had mastered the face expression that went with all varying levels of it.  
And now she wished she were completely unfeeling.

"I swear, I'm walking around like a doll with a sassy tongue. And I'm not sure I don't like what I've become."   
School started, and the students started to drift back in from the holidays. Startled, Lily recollected that she hadn't had one fainting spell since her last visit to the Alendoren Cove, and she was rather puzzled. She was thankful for it, though, as those fits would have become rather inconvenient during, say, her nighttime flits into the Shrieking Shack or her climb to the North Tower. She still wondered, when she looked back, what had made her do that crazy thing, but then she realized that she'd do it again if given the opportunity.   
Abigail came back with bursting excitement, which was quite quenched when she saw the cool way Lily greeted her. A bit hurt, she withdrew into her circle of other third-year friends, convinced that Lily had been influenced by Serena to hate her. In all fairness, it must be said that Lily didn't know she was being cold and stand-offish; she thought she was acting just as usual. Nowadays, if anyone wanted a hug from her because her cat had just died, Lily was the wrong person to go to. She would smile uncertainly and say something disconcerting like:   
"Well, can't you get another cat?"  
Eva, though she could seem a bit flaky at times, was one of the best friends Lily could ever have had, and she was showing it now. Not like any of Lily's other friends, she would neither sympathize and encourage Lily to do any of the things her crazy impulses made her want to do or tell her straight out that what she was doing was wrong and that she needed to stop.   
Whenever Lily would stare dreamily out of the windows and turn around fiercely with the light of battle in her eyes, Eva was there, with a questioning look that made Lily reconsider. The look would have infuriated her if she had been given it by any other person, but from Eva it was soothing and calming, and the wild ideas forming in Lily's head were abandoned as soon as her friend made her see how deranged and dangerous they were.   
Like a true friend, Eva stuck to Lily's side, told her all of the meaningless bits of gossip she heard, and even many of her deepest secrets, knowing that her friend would feel trusted by the confidence and honored. Lily did feel that way, and she knew what Eva was doing and why, and she was grateful.   
The first week and the second of classes passed in a flash. Lily could often be seen reading in the back if Professor Binns' or Professor McGonagall's classes, and not in her schoolbooks. Yet when called upon, she always had an answer pat, even though she hadn't been listening to the lecture at all.   
It disconcerted her teachers to see her spouting knowledge, even though no one ever saw her study, and it made them feel her forehead anxiously at the end of classes. When they tried to do that, Lily usually squirmed away and passed out of the classroom like a shy ghost; leaving the teachers behind to wonder if she really was all right.   
One afternoon, when she was looking exceptionally peaked and white, Professor Cauldwell asked to see her after class.  
"Yes, Professor?"   
"Miss Evans, the whole staff here is worried about you. Is the strain of skipping second year becoming too much for you?"   
Lily stiffened. "Professor, I am quite all right."   
"You are sure? You have been looking terribly sick lately."   
Lily put her hand up to her white cheek and noticed with a shock that her face was cold, cold as marble.   
"Oh–Professor–I assure you, I am quite all right. Please–please excuse me." She rushed out of the classroom and right into Eva's armful of books.   
"Lily! Watch it–what happened in there?" She straightened up immediately when she caught sight of her friend, normally with such a pale tan complexion, and now she was pale as new-fallen snow, scared as if she had just been attacked by a banshee, and with dark green eyes blazing in fright.   
For the first time in weeks, Lily was breathing fast, and her heart was beating unnaturally quickly. "Eva, look at me."   
"I am. That's what I want to know."   
"I don't know, that's what it is! That's exactly what it is! I'm turning into some sort of ghost–and I don't know why–Eva, I know you're a terribly good friend and you've been doing all you can over the past few days to help–but if you can, do something about this!"   
Eva set her mouth in a thin line at the first outburst she had had from Lily in months. This was a sort of a good sign, though she didn't let on. "First things first. You're coming with me." She grasped Lily's hand in a painful grasp and marched towards Gryffindor Tower.   
They whirled into the exercise room on the girls' side, and Eva slammed and locked the door. Then she faced Lily.   
"Lil, hand me that necklace."   
"This?" Lily plucked at her chain. "Why?"   
"I think this may be the root of all the problems. Hand it over."   
Lily closed her eyes, then snapped them back open. "What are you going to do with it?"   
"Put it in a safe place. Come on."   
With an expression that made the viewer think her heart was being wrenched, Lily slowly lifted the chain off and laid it in Eva's hand. Quickly, as if she were preventing herself from changing her mind, she sn atched her hand back and quickly buried her head in her arms. When, a few seconds later, she emerged, she felt terribly relieved and unburdened, as if over half of her burdens were gone.Her paleness receded over the next few days, and Lily could have sworn that James was making time go by faster, because in no time at all it was the morning of the Hogsmeade visit. This time, Lily had been asked by Sirius if she'd go shopping for a birthday present for his sister with him, and she had gratefully agreed. But when they walked into Zonko's together, Lily couldn't help but flinch at the sight she was greeted with. Sirius noticed her disconcertion, though he had no idea of the cause. "What?"   
Lily gulped. She nodded over her right shoulder. Sirius bent down to pick up a bag of Dungbombs, managing to peer around the shelves. He straightened up, thinking.   
"Good grief, it's bad enough for them to make her life miserable at school, but at least they can refrain from doing that here!" James and Serena were looking through Making your Muggle enemies a life of living Halifax by Bathilda Snowsone. He quickly steered Lily towards the door, but that did no good, either, because he pushed her right into the chattering group of Ravenclaw girls, led by none other than Sheila herself. And to make matters infintely worse, she was the one Lily crashed into.


	19. The Alendoren Cove and several fights

Sheila fell onto the cobblestoned street just outside the door, taking Lily with her. Quickly, before anyone could respond or scream or even move an inch, Sirius was by Lily's side and was pulling her down the street. But Sheila recovered very fast, which in this case was not so good for Lily.   
She jumped up, not even bothering to wipe the slush off of her robes. Whipping out her wand, she screeched after Lily, a short, indignant yell that pulled all of her hate together.   
"Evans!"   
Lily whirled.   
"Come here right now!"   
Lily, ignoring the hand Sirius had laid on her arm, shook him off impatiently and, collected and dignified, advanced towards Sheila, down the street.   
"You called, I believe?"   
Sheila was a furious angry cat, sputtering and slitting her eyes. "Evans, I've had enough of you. You and your ways. You think you're so much better than all of us, and here you come, knocking into me and walking by as if I were–were a house-elf. You're not our queen, and it's time you learned that. You vile–you evil–you heartless–"   
If Sheila was an irritated kitten, Lily was a ferocious tigress. She drew her lips back from her pearly teeth and verily hissed in anger. She hadn't been aroused like this since James had accused her that day in her dormitory, and the anger she had kept bottled up inside her since then burst out. She was even more aroused than she had been that day, not even bothering to try to control herself. Flaming and rabid, she advanced on the cowering girl in front of her, who had abandoned all aggressive attacks she dearly wanted to shout out.   
Lily's eyes seemed to shoot fire as she drew closer to her aggressor, who refused to back up. It was probably the bravest and stupidest thing she had ever done, but she prohibited the notion of running to enter her brain, slamming the door on it and locking it in the basement. And, to all present, the two were seen in a new light. Lily, a violent redhead with an almost ungovernable temper advancing on an enraged blonde with a seemingly unbearable grievance, appeared to the onlookers as an infuriated queen who had a cowering subject betray her, and she was out after the subject's blood. Then, the vision vanished as the queen de-materialized in a clap of blue lightning.  
Gasping and choking, Lily coughed out a mouthful of fine white sand as she raised her head from the painful position she had been flung in when she landed. Limping and not a little white, she made her agonizing way over to the sea, where she managed to dip her left side in the water.   
Wincing but feeling a bit better, she turned her thoughts to how she had arrived here. The necklace! But--wait–Eva had taken that away from her.   
Frowning, she felt her throat and drew her breath in suddenly when she found a thin chain and pendant beneath her fingers. She had no idea how it had come there, but all she knew was that she was injured and she couldn't get back to Hogsmeade. Not since Serena had played with the necklace had she been able to get back by her own will.   
For at least an hour, she sat amongst the rocks, sand, and waves, hot even though it was January. Then, sick of lying there and not doing anything, she tried to stand, propping herself up against a handy piece of rock that had fallen from an overhead cliff several centuries ago.   
The standing was fine, but as soon as she tried to walk on her own, her injured side buckled and she fell, hitting her head on hard rock. Refusing to black out, she kept her eyes focused on the glaring sand until her eyes could take it no longer nor her body the pain, and then she did faint.  
It was dark, dark and hot and cool and soothing. But then Lily felt two hands take her by the shoulders and shake her violently. With a cry, she opened her eyes and looked into the familiar green ones of Tom Riddle. He, with a nod, held one hand behind her back and neck, holding her in a sitting position; with the other he pulled several pillows behind her. Letting her sink gently into the mound of feathery gentleness, he went to a door, calling for someone.   
Lily let her drowsy eyes rove around the room. It was obviously part of Litharelen's mansion, for it had the same metalwork and the same marble floors swirled with silver, but in the middle of the room there was a fancy sort of cross between a four-poster and a bathtub. She herself was lying on a beautiful bed, the headboard and foot-end made of wrought silver,   
Litharelen came as quickly as blinking. Worry etched all over her face, she fairy ran to the bedside, feeling Lily's forehead in a now familiar gesture. Lily tried to push herself farther up, but sharp needles shot through her left arm and she cried out in pain.   
Looking down, she found her arm in bandages and from her chest to her feet covered in a white sheet, but through the sheet were visible the strips of cloth tied around her leg and waist. Litharelen touched the inured arm lightly.   
"We found you, lying half in the water, and Tom took you down here. He called me to send for a doctor–and you've been here for three days."   
Lily, who had closed her eyes, snapped them wide open again. "Three–three days?"   
Litharelen nodded. "You were delirious. Screaming things no one could discern–well, besides maybe one or two words…but here. Drink this." She had pulled one of the crystal pitchers hanging from the fountain in the kitchen form under the bed, and it was filled with the familiar silver liquid. "Drink," she repeated.   
Lily obeyed, tilting the pitcher and feeling life flow through her veins again. She shook off all of her drowsiness, but when she tried to swing her legs out of the confining sheets, the intense knives shot through her again and forced her to lie back down.   
"Lily, shh. Lie here for a few days; you'll be all right. It's no use trying to stand up; you broke your leg, arm, three ribs, and a shoulderblade and strained Heaven knows how many muscles, not to mention cutting your head on that boulder. The doctor said to lie quietly."   
Lily tried to sit erect again but failed. "I cut my–" Her hand flew up to her skull, and instead of encountering the obstinate red locks, she touched wet bandages, and when she drew her had away, it was tainted a reddish color. Litharelen shook her head.   
"It's been bleeding since it happened, and nothing anyone could do could stop it. You'll be able to go back to Hogwarts in about a week and a half, though, if the bleeding's stopped."  
"A week and a half." Lily's head drooped. "What am I going to do about anyone noticing that I'm missing? Which they certainly will."   
"Oh–" Litharelen waved that aside. "Tom fixed that."

"How?"   
Tom stepped forward. "Nothing much, really. I materialized a clone of you and transferred it to Hogsmeade the minute we found you and realized you couldn't go back. Don't worry. Your clone's not going to say or do anything you won't know about–I got that done. She's in a faint, and when you're well enough to go back, your elements and hers are going to be switched using the Dematerialization/Tramsportation medical invention–just invented, so it's only natural you haven't heard about it–so she's going to dematerialize as soon as we can transport you back. Easy as pie."   
Lily stared at him. "You've never made pie before, have you?"   
"Erm–no–but what does that have to do with this?"   
"Pie is a long grueling process, especially the crust. And then you always have to be certain that you don't pinch the edges too tightly or the crust isn't too thick and that you don't put salt instead of sugar in–the list can go on forever, but, really, between pi and pie, pi is so much easier."   
"Which pie?"   
"Three point one four one five nine two six five four et cetera."   
"Ah." Tom nodded. "I'll take your word for it. What I meant was that this whole situation is going to be quite easy to take care of."   
Litharelen re-entered the room; Lily didn't even know she had been gone. "What are you two talking about?"   
They both answered at the same time. "Pie."  
Through the next week, Lily kept her necklace tucked away under her robes, and she was always on tenterhooks every time Litharelen replaced her bandages. She didn't know why, but she didn't want anyone in the Alendoren Cove to know what she owned.   
Only eight days later, Lily was well enough to be sent back. They were to start that afternoon, and she was terribly glad to get out of Albania. It wasn't that she didn't like Tom and Litharelen, she told herself, because she did; it was just that Tom made her just the tiniest bit nervous every time she whipped around suddenly and he was staring at something with unfocused red eyes. But whenever he caught her glance, his eyes returned to normal and he smiled. Still, that couldn't ease Lily's uneasiness.   
She could stand now and walk without any problems, but if she ever crashed into something, she'd be paralyzed for a few hours, uncapable of movement. Bearing the warning against not running or banging into furniture in mind, she bent down to get the Hogwarts robes that had been folded and placed underneath the bed she had been in.   
She slipped, and, seeing the floor loom towards her, ripped the necklace off and, in the nick of time, praying that this would work, she hit the stone against the marble floor.   
With her eyes closed, she crashed into something soft. Flinging her eyelids off, she sat up, wincing a bit, surprised that she could move. The surroundings she was in were familiar, and she was expecting to see them. The hospital wing's green curtains surrounded her on every side. And next to her, she heard a wrenching sound.   
Sirius had torn the curtains aside, and for a few seconds, they just stared at each other, both of them stunned.  
He wrenched himself away and turned around to whatever was behind him. "She's awake!"   
Immediately, the other curtains vanished and were replaced with faces Lily knew. And most of them she hadn't been on friendly footing with for ages. Amanda was there, Miranda, John, Ashley, Abigail, even Elspeth, Serverus, Lucius, Nigel, and–Lily had to shake her head several times.   
"James Potter, why–"   
He ducked his head. "Lily, can I say I'm sorry?"   
She kept on staring. "Who are you and what did you do with James? Not that I mind; of course I don't mind."   
"Erm–" He turned a bit pink and looked over to Sirius for help. Sirius fulfilled his position as understanding friend.   
"He just realized what an ass he's been, and he came to ask for forgiveness. I told him you'd stand for nothing else but kneeling at your feet, and he was quite willing to do that. And then–"   
"SIRIUS BLACK! I SAID NO SUCH THING!"  
Everyone in the hospital wing started to giggle at James' indignation. Soon the giggles turned into downright laughter, which persisted until Lily, deadly tired for a reason she couldn't explain, fell back into her pillows in a faint.   
A month later, Professor Dumbledore had come to talk to her. She hadn't told him much, but he understood enough to command her to put the necklace away; never to use it again. When she asked him why he couldn't take it, his face grew grave and he left the room, telling her that she would know when she was old enough.   
Ravenclaw was flattened by Hufflepuff in the last Quidditch match, and in the one before that Gryffindor had beaten Ravenclaw badly, so everyone was delighted that Ravenclaw was out of the running, along with Slytherin, who had been beaten by Ravenclaw, sixty to one hundred and ninety, last term.   
Lily had only seen Sheila once since that encounter in Hogsmeade, and when she did, Sheila hurriedly stepped back so that Lily could walk out of the Great Hall undisturbed.   
She was back to a halfway normal footing with James. One of Serena's relatives; an uncle, had died and she had gone to the Netherlands to be at his funeral and prove her identity, as she was mentioned in his will, so she wasn't there to egg James on much. Still, every time she sent him a letter, he was a bit aloof and refused to speak to Lily for the rest of the day, though next morning he was friendly again.   
Eva tried her best to make Lily loosen up a bit, and after her painful encounter with the Alendoren Cove and the shock that followed, Lily was quite willing to listen to Eva as if she were a mother, and to obey her. The result was that Lily was quite a bit warmer to her friends and acquaintances than she had been, though she still could turn terribly dignified and cold if she wished, and if someone made her angry. That didn't happen too often, though, for what happened at Hogsmeade was all over the school, and no one cared to make Lily angry any more. It was drawing near to Easter, which was in the middle of March that year. Lily was going home for the holidays, and she had invited Eva to come and visit. They were down in the common room the night before their departure, and they were excitedly chattering about what they'd do to Petunia, when a shadow fell over Lily's excited demeanor."Hullo."   
Lily looked up. "Oh, hi. Sit down?"   
"Sure." James sat down on the pouf near Lily's chair. He was fidgeting a bit and looked rather nervous, which surprised both the girls; the invincible and conquering James Potter, nervous at the prospect of talking to them? Inconcievable!

"Erm–Eva?"   
"Eva turned to him, a bright smile on her face. "Hum?"   
"Could you–could you–erm–do you think you could–er–"   
"Never mind the rest. I follow your general idea." She stood up, and, throwing a triumphant glance over her shoulder at Lily, Eva climbed the stairs to the girls' dormitory two at a time.   
Lily re-settled herself in her armchair. "I gathered that you want to talk to me. What about? That is–shoot–go ahead."   
He was a bit unnerved by her cool casualness, nevertheless, he made somewhat of a start.   
"You know, Lily, before the last Quidditch match of last year?"   
"School year or year-year?"   
"School."   
"Yeah, I do. You were half-buried in books." And I know where those books are now, she was about to add, but restrained herself. He looked a bit too moody for getting blackmail anxieties on top of whatever his other problems were.   
"N–no–I mean when we started to fight."   
"Mhm-So? I mean, what about it?" Lily was becoming a bit impatient and was longing for this to be over with.   
"Well–I just wanted to say–that is–I mean–"  
Lily's unquenchable temper was getting the better of her. "Will you get on with it?"   
For an instant, his eyes flamed. "I'm doing my best!"   
"Well," she replied tartly, "your best doesn't seem to be very good, does it?"   
He threw his hands up, plainly having had enough, and now his temper was roused, too. He rose in his seat, and with every inch he ascended, his voice started to rise.   
"Lily Evans, you don't know what on earth I dragged myself down here for, do you? I actually let Sirius persuade me to come down and beg pardon. You have no idea how much it took for me to get this far, and you have no intention of finding out. Sirius–though where he got that idea is far beyond my ken–had the idea that we'd be good friends–terribly good–but I just hadn't given you a chance. I tried this evening. I tried so hard."   
The common room was slowly turning its attention to the couple sitting near the fire.   
"You've never felt any pity and you never will. You're a cold, heartless creature, and how Sirius and Eva can put up with a hag like you is beyond anything I can understand. I–"   
By this time, Lily's impatience had bubbled over, scalding the pot and making the steam cover all it landed on.   
"You–go to Halifax. I've had enough of your noble airs and your pretended hurt and your carryings on. I don't care if I never speak to you again, and if I never see you again, it'll be too soon." Head high, with a crimson face, she quickly left the dormitory, leaving James behind in a terribly embarrassing position, facing the whole common room that had heard every bit of the tirade.  
Eva was sitting on her bed expectantly, and was rather surprised when Lily stormed past her door without even a "Good night". She was out of her dormitory in a flash and had followed Lily into hers, perceiving that something was wrong but hoping for the best.   
"So, how did it go?"   
"How did what go?"   
"Well, what happened with James?"   
Lily shrugged coldly. "We lost our tempers and I left."   
Eva's jaw dropped. "Lily, how could you?"   
"I don't know how I could. I got so impatient with him, and I sort of told him that."   
"How could you do that to me–to him?"   
Instantly, Lily was on the alert. "To you?"   
"Well, yeah, I mean, I worked so hard to get you two to this place, and now you ruined it!"   
"Thank you very much, but I wouldn't dream of accepting him even as a acquaintance on a silver platter."   
Eva sighed. "Lil, dear, he is your acquaintance. No matter what you do and as long as you live, you will know him."   
"Oh!" Lily buried her head in the pillows and lay there silently. Eva retreated silently, though for what reason Lily couldn't understand. Seconds later, she did, however.   
"Lily?"  
She had her ears muffled and her mouth, so her "What?" was rather non-understandable, but whoever it was understood her.   
"Lily, I need to talk to you."   
"Go away!"   
"Lily, please!" He grasped her wrists, pulled them up and raised her to face him. "We need to talk!"   
With a ferocity unlike any woman, she wrenched herself free and dashed over to the windowseat, opening the glass pane.   
"I swear, if you come any closer, I'm jumping out."   
"Why do you hate me all of a sudden?"   
"I can't stand busybodies."   
"Be that as it may, it's only a while before Gryffindor Tower decides to come up here. Be reasonable. And if you decide to fling yourself out, they'll get me for murder."   
"The appropriate response is either "No, you won't" or "If you do, I'll jump right after you" or something like that."   
"Well, we both know that you would do that."   
Lily nodded. "We both know that."   
"That you possess both the unstableness of mind and courage. We both know that."   
"SHUT UP! I am neither unhinged or terribly brave."   
"I knew that. What you are is very daring and not afraid of death."   
He read her like a book. Her first thought, it must be admitted, was: "How dare he? I didn't give him permission to look inside my mind!"

"Lily, this isn't funny any more. You may have started out thinking this was just a game. I know it still is to you–but if anything can move you at all, think at least of him, of what he's going through."   
Lily laughed, short and scornful.   
"Sirius, he's down in the common room bragging about how he made me mad."   
"No. And I'll prove that little idea wrong. Come with me."   
She didn't move, besides to open the window a bit farther.   
"I'll tell Serena and the school that your last words were an apology to her."   
Lily set her mouth in a hard line. Scowling, she slammed the window and wished she'd made it shatter.   
"That's better. Come with me."   
"Who are you to be giving me orders?"   
"I said come!" Walking swiftly towards her, he took her wrists in that iron grip again, and, half frightened by the hard look on his face, she allowed herself to be dragged along.   
They went out of the girls' dormitories by the house-elf door, then entered the boys' tower by the same sort of entrance. It was empty, everyone being in the common room, and dark. They made no sound as they glided along the dark scarlet carpet. Once Lily asked where they were going, but he shushed her with a hard hand over her mouth.   
They stopped in front of a dormitory with "Third Years" written on it, and Sirius pressed Lily against the wall as he cowered on the floor, the very picture of a bear or dog about to pounce.   
He knew her too well to think for an instant that she would gossip, and, still crouching, he made his stealthy way to a trunk in the dark dormitory. Pulling something out of it, something silvery, he rejoined Lily in the hallway. He threw the Invisibility Cloak over her and pushed her gently into the dormitory, towards the one bed with an occupant. An awake but by no means excited or happy occupant.  
Silently, and with the greatest care, she moved forward, making sure not to tread on the loose oddments of fireworks and other Zonko products that were lying on the floor. With a great sense of relief, she found that the person on the bed had not the slightest notion that someone else was in his dormitory, and, encouraged, she knelt down next to the bed.   
James was lying in it, eyes open, staring up at the ceiling, looking quite petrified. Thank goodness he wasn't crying, Lily thought to herself; she never could stand boys that could cry. Sometimes he would speak, and some of the things that he said Lily could understand.   
James pressed his lips together, obviously recalling and running over the scene in the common room.   
"Will you get on with it?"   
"I'm doing my best!" His eyebrows contracted as he repeated his own words.   
"Well, your best doesn't seem to be very good, does it?"   
Lily flushed, recognizing her venomous expressions that seemed to spill out without any encouragement or order from her. A bit downcast, she settled herself on the floor, Indian-style, and after making sure no one was at the doorway besides Sirius, she resumed her listening.  
He slammed his clenched fist into the pillow. "Good God, couldn't she see I was trying my best? What does she want me to do, beg and get down on my knees?"   
Lily's crimson face's color had only started to recede, but at James' last words it came back again with full force, and she bit her lips violently.   
"Oh!" she whispered, forgetting that the cloak only closed out her figure, not her voice. James started up. "Who's there?"   
Lily didn't move, breathe, or make a sound. True, she was quite frightened of what he'd do to her if he found her eavesdropping, but she also was very anxious not to be found in a boys' dormitory and to hear what else he had to say.   
Satisfied that he was alone, James dropped back onto his pillow.   
"Dear God, I stutter too much. I know this wasn't my fault, but I could have prevented it. She won't speak to me now, after this!   
"I wish she'd let me say what I came to say. I'd bet anything we'd be the best of friends again. And I had to go and mess everything up! She'd probably have forgiven me–but no! I know I irritated her unnecessarily, and I wish I hadn't."   
Lily slipped the cloak off of her head and turned to Sirius. With a pleading light in her eyes, she nodded over to James.   
"Please, help him!" she mouthed. With a breath of relief, she saw Sirius stand up and move into the room. Casting the cloak back over her head, she withdrew into a darker corner as Sirius touched James on the shoulder.   
"James, buddy, you all right?"   
"Wh–?" He shot up in bed, then, noticing who it was, sank back down, obviously not caring if Sirius saw him. "Fine. Couldn't be better."   
"You sure?"   
"Stop bugging me! I'm quite all right!" He said this with a preoccupied look and a wistful glance towards the doorway.   
Sirius pulled him out of bed. "Liar."   
"What do you mean by 'liar'? I'm quite all right!"   
"You escaped from the common room as soon as you two had that fight and have been up here for a good ten minutes, replaying everything that happened, and getting mad at yourself for what you did."   
James stood up, suspicion written plainly all over his face. "How do you know that?"   
"You know me too well to think that I wouldn't admit. And I admit with pleasure. I've been sitting outside, listening to you mumble."   
"Go to Ha–never mind."   
"So, you've been picking up her phrases too? I told you that you two'd get along."   
"Get along? Me and Lily? Sirius, really, you of all people should know better."   
"I know better than you do. You're being a stubborn fool, and really, you should try again tomorrow."   
"Tomorrow?"   
"You're both going home over Easter holidays, aren't you? Well then!"   
He grinned triumphantly as James' wistful gaze turned into a scheming stare.

The next morning, just before breakfast, Lily went over her exit from the boys' dormitory, the time when Remus and Peter, talking animatedly, almost bumped into her, when she had no idea how to give the cloak back without being found in the boys' half of the Tower, and ended up just walking out with it, intending to give it back to James on the train, and finally, the narrow escape she had when a group of house-elves were scurrying up the stairs while she was still wearing the cloak. She knew that she was lucky to have made it back without being caught in either of the two stampedes; the house-elf one and the one all of the sleepy Gryffindors caused. Closing the lid on her black trunk with its gold fastenings, Lily went down to breakfast.   
When she walked in the Great Hall, she was relieved to find that she was one of the first ones there. She didn't feel like putting up with Sirius and his comments, and she wasn't up to facing the rest of the school, who would certainly know about her spat last night in the common room. She wolfed down a few scones, a glass of milk, a bowl of oatmeal with cinnamon on top, and tied a few rolls and pieces of toast in her napkin for later. Pushing back her chair, she left the Great Hall, which was slowly starting to fill up.   
As Lily passed the double doors that led to the entrance hall, a "Watch it!" made her look up.   
She was startled, and became even more so when the speaker turned out to be John, accompanied by all of the Quidditch team.   
"Well, and a good morning to you, too!"   
"Watch where you put your feet, Muggle!"   
Lily had no idea what prompted this rudeness–especially from John, who was usually the nicest out of all of the Quidditch team's boys. "I was."   
"Then how come you bumped into me?"   
"Because I was watching my feet, like you suggested I do."   
"You little–" He stopped; a hand had been laid on his arm. James was shaking his head no, and with reluctance and confusion, John let the subject drop and let Lily move out.   
She walked out onto the grounds, confused and not a little bewildered. "Now what did I do?"   
"Nothing."  
Lily jumped. She whirled around, yet she couldn't see the speaker. "Where and who are you?" she questioned sharply, immediately on the defensive.   
"On your left side. Turn around; they're watching you."   
Obedient but still suspicious, Lily kept walking. "Who, 'they'?"   
"John and the rest. Not that way–" a grip on her arm made her turn towards the Quidditch field–"this way–they can't see anything behind here."   
Finally, behind the stadium, whoever it was threw off the Invisibility Cloak and rolled it up, placing it in a small bag he had brought.   
"Where'd you get that cloak?" She remembered vividly laying it in her trunk, and unless he had two, which was highly unlikely, this was a bit odd.   
"Oh–this–" James shrugged. "My father left it to me."   
Lily frowned. "Your father's dead?"   
"What–no, no!–good heavens, no! He gave it to me last Christmas."   
"Well, besides that, where was it last night?"   
"Huh?"   
Lily scowled. She was never good at subtlety, and it seemed a good art to learn. She swore to herself she would, if she ever had the time.   
"Never mind."   
"Do you know where it was?"   
She turned on him like a ferocious lioness whose kittens were being attacked. "So now, on top of everything else, you're accusing me of stealing?"   
"No—no—good heavens, Lily, I didn't mean that! I wanted to know if you know who took it."   
"Oh." Somewhat pacified, she silently thanked Sirius for not mentioning anything to James about her taking the cloak with her, even if she had intended to give it back. It put her in a rather good humor right away, and she smiled slightly. "Of course not. You think I go to the boys' dormitories at nine o'clock in the evening? Oh, don't answer that one," she added hastily, still smiling, "you know I wouldn't."   
He gave her that one and refused to jeer, though he could have done so quite easily. Lily knew she had set herself up for several taunts and she was quite obliged when he didn't say a word.   
"May I talk to you on the train? Or is this too soon for me to speak to you. What was that—if I never see you again, it's too soon?"   
"Oh, hush!" She stamped her foot like a willful child, which she really was, though she couldn't bring her muscles to let her wipe the tiny grin off of her face. "You know I don't mean a thing of what I say when I'm angry. Yes, thank you, you may honor me with your presence on the ride home."   
He threw the cloak over himself as he watched her amble past him to the entrance hall. "You certainly would make a good actress, then."   
Lily stopped in her tracks. "What do you mean?"  
"Well, the whole Tower believed that you wanted to tear me to pieces last night, myself included."   
"Humph." She sniffed with a pretended affected air. "If I didn't think my grandmother would cross me out of her will for doing it, I would take up the stage."   
"Old-fashioned, is she? Still believes that you should stay at home and be a respectable housewife?"   
"Yes, and an old ninny she is, too. If she wasn't so rich, I'd have disgraced myself in her eyes long ago."   
"Dear God, you're thinking of money at your age?"   
Lily paused again. "No, not really. But have you ever felt the urge to open your hand and scatter diamonds or pieces of gold onto the earth?"   
He laughed. "Thank goodness you're not as hard-hearted as I thought. But what you want to do with money is just amazingly strange. Simply giving away everything you own?"   
"Now, really, what would I do with hard stones that only look beautiful? You can't eat them—well, you could make yourself a garment out of them, though that would take an awful lot of stones, time and money—and besides, who'd want to wear hard metal and rocks? I know I'd prefer a warm cotton blanket to any number of diamond cloaks. And anyway, I like everything around me much more than those old pebbles that people start wars over."


	20. The train ride home for Easter

He shook his head. "You're the beatenest girl I ever saw, but—oh, never mind. Better be going back; the train's going to be starting soon."  
"But what, James Potter?"   
"But never mind."   
"You know I won't let you leave till you've answered me."   
"We'll be stuck here forever, because I have no intention of telling you. Maybe sometime, when your little brain can take all of these facts jumbled together at one gulp, but now you're simply too young." He was jeering openly in her face, and he had wiped the amused expression out of her mind and heart and off of her countenance, and she was boiling.   
"Don't forget, Mr. Potter, that I'm only a year younger than you are, and probably less than that. And as for my mind capacity, I hope you haven't forgotten that you weren't the one asked to skip a year--"   
His voice was the only clue she had that he still was there, because he was now completely cloaked in transparency.   
"I haven't forgotten. And I didn't mean that, and if I insinuated it, so be it. I'll let your little mind labor under that delusion."   
Lily didn't hear a word more, for her uncontrollable temper had soared, making fires blaze up behind her eyes, just like last night in the common room, leaving her no room for thinking that she might soon regret everything she wanted to say. But something called her back to reason, something pricked her inside, and unwillingly, the scene she had witnessed in the boys' dormitory last night floated before her eyes. Refusing to let her say anything scathing, it made her turn around and with as much dignity as her unconscious mind could summon, she set out across the lawns for the entrance hall.  
On the train home, Lily didn't need to elbow her way through the crowded corridors of the train; people, eyes narrowed, scooted to the sides and let her pass. She correctly suspected that this was all on account of the fight she had had last night, and she wished for one moment that people didn't have such a hard-headed liking for their Quidditch team members. But then a Scarlett O'Hara reaction, an "I'll think of that tomorrow", pushed all other thoughts out of her mind and spread itself over all, allowing no other thoughts on that subject. Lily had managed to get into an empty compartment, which was a good thing, for she really didn't feel like having all of the occupants of a partly-filled one scoot out as soon as she stepped inside. This one was fine.   
She sat in a seat next to the window, ignoring or trying to ignore the gigglings and indignant voices raised in pretend anger out in the hallway. For a slight instant, she wished she could be one of those girls, carefree and happy-go-lucky, but then the thought of Serena rose to the top. Being friends with those girls would be impossible unless she first made peace with Serena and Sheila, and she had no intention of doing that. Both of those girls would use their friends mercilessly, and Lily was not the slightest bit interested in being used a second time. She therefore sat upright in her seat, back not touching the cushions behind her, almost as if she were wearing a corset and stays, staring out of the window and thinking back to that morning.  
Several loud bangs on her closed door made her wake up out of a half-trance, and in a very bad mood at being startled out of her reflections, she yanked the door open.   
James fell in, with Sirius on top of him. Both of them, ignoring the fact that Lily had made them land on the floor, immediately sprang up and slammed the door shut, locking it. Breathing several loud, long, and deep sighs of relief, they sank onto two seats each, only then noticing the strange looks Lily was giving them.   
"What on earth?"   
James nodded towards the door. Lily turned her head in that direction, and immediately, she saw Serverus' and Lucius' angry faces looming two feet away from the glass. When they saw her in there, however, they dropped their wand hands and retired down the corridor, leaving behind two boys who were about to be grilled.   
Lily sat back down herself. "I have a funny feeling you two are going to explain this." Her tone left no doubt that they would, and the boys knew it.   
"Well—" James was still rather out of breath—"well, it's not exactly out fault that the idiots would even think of putting on shoes with Dungbombs in them."   
Lily was torn between horror and amusement. "You did what?"   
"Everyone on this darned train takes off their shoes during the trip, 'cause it lasts so long. Well, we didn't know that Lucius would be going to get drinks from that lady with the cart, and so, naturally, we used his shoes as a convenient place to store our Dungbombs. And he ruined a perfectly good dozen of them, too!" His voice was raised in feigned anger, and Lily couldn't help but laugh behind the hand she held to her nose, imagining the smell of Lucius' compartment.  
They finally left off laughing, though Lily kept bursting into spontaneous fits of giggles for no apparent reason at all. At about noon, Sirius stood up.   
"James, I'm going to see what Longbottom's up to. He told me that Malfoy was going to try to smuggle some of the Potion ingredients from Cauldwell's store-cupboard out of Hogwarts, and we're going to see if this can be turned to our advantage. See you two later." He swung out of the compartment, leaving James and Lily behind, both of them feeling awfully embarrassed.   
James knew why Sirius had gone, and so did Lily, but James wasn't aware that Lily knew. And Lily was perfectly aware of the fact that James was under the delusion that she didn't know that Sirius had left to give James some apologizing and talking time, and she intended to keep it that way.   
It was always so much fun to listen to people stumble over their words and think of the right ones to say and then embarrass themselves terribly and give the whole thing away…Lily had had an aunt that seemed to see through every lie she was given, so the only option for the guilty party was, to them, to confess, and when they had done so, the aunt would look down at them; "Oh, is that so?" Lily had been caught that way twice, and from then on, she had refrained from coming into her aunt's presence whenever she had something on her mind, innocent or not.   
So now, watching James twitch in his seat, she was looking forward to this conversation, which, no doubt, would be an allowance of laughter stretching at least over the Easter holidays. She took out a book; Death on the Nile, by Agatha Christie, and curled up in her seat. She refused to look up at the hinting noises which came from the person nearest the door, preferring to let him squirm.   
A quiet cough.   
Lily didn't move.   
A tactful cough.

Lily's eyes went from one page to the next.   
Pause.   
Another tactful cough.   
Lily flipped the page.   
Squirm from James, the removal of a foot tucked from underneath Lily.   
A rather louder cough.   
Turning of two more pages. Lily was finished with the expository parts of the story.   
'"Yes, darling, I'm engaged!"   
"So that's it! I thought you were looking particularly alive somehow."'   
Several soft sneezes, almost like a kitten.  
Lily moved to the bottom of page eleven.   
'"I shall die if I can't marry him! I shall die! I shall die! I shall die…"'   
Well, Lily thought, raising her eyebrows, that dark-headed little child was rather ridiculous! Dying if she couldn't marry a man…why, the world would go on just the same with or without marriage. It certainly did until they discovered the practice of marriage, and then the whole world just got turned upside down.   
Several louder sneezes.   
Page thirty-one and moving.   
'"You've got to pull it off," his partner said. "The situation's critical."'   
Page sixty-seven and the person in the corner was getting rather upset. He accidentally kicked Lily's trunk.   
'"…because, you see, as long as it works, I shan't use that pistol…But I'm afraid–yes, afraid sometimes–it all goes red–I want to hurt her–to stick a knife into her, to put my dear little pistol close against her head and then–just press with my finger–Oh!"'   
Lily sniffed. Now, really, Jackie, is that any way to act? Why, murder isn't good at all! It awards so little satisfaction. Torture lasts much longer and gives so much pleasure. And so little people can really take torture. I wonder if Serena could. I can find out, though...   
James kicked her trunk again, purposely this time.   
Page eighty-three, and Sirius had peeked into the compartment, and finding them both silent, he drew away. This departure was missed by neither of the inhabitants; the only difference was that James didn't know Lily had seen Sirius and Lily knew that James didn't know that she knew.  
'"What are the usual motives, Monsieur Poirot?"   
"Most frequent–money. That is to say, gain in its various ramifications. Then there is revenge–and love, and fear, and pure hate, and beneficence–"'   
Lily felt that, personally, her strongest motives for murder at the time would be revenge and hate.   
Another strong kick to Lily's trunk, accompanied by a loud cough.   
Page ninety.   
"I suppose–it's nerves…I just feel that–everything's unsafe all around me."   
Such a rumbling noise came from the figure in the corner, Lily thought he must be suffering from several double cases of bronchitis combined.   
"Erm–Lily?"   
Oh, good, he finally spoke. About time, too.   
"Hm?"   
"Could–could I talk to you for a second?"   
"You already did."   
"You know what I mean."   
"Prove it."   
"Prove what?"   
"That I know what you mean."   
"Well–you usually do."   
"In your perception, I understand what you mean. In the perception of others, however, we do not percieve that you percieve that we comprehend what we mean."   
"Huh?"   
Lily was talking very fast now, and if one combines logic with big words, a high speed of talking, and a British accent, it makes the speaker look wonderfully smart and leaves the listener with his mouth hanging open. Lily was quite aware of this, and that was exactly the reason she was doing it.   
"Every different person has different perceptions, you agree?"   
"Huh? Oh–yeah, right."   
''It is your perception that I percieve what you mean. And since my perception is different from yours, it is quite understandable that, in my perception, your perception is totally and completely, not to say utterly, incorrect. Therefore, I do not percieve what you mean."   
She thought how much like a slaughtered calf he looked, and worse, he didn't know it. Mouth hanging open, he was still confused.  
"Let's take another example. I am God. Please disprove that."   
"Huh? Oh–well, you're not."   
Lily rolled her eyes.   
"Umm–well–well, you're not."   
She was getting impatient, and when she got impatient, her tongue generally loosed itself and began saying all sorts of thing; things that she understood perfectly, and that in itself was frightening to some.   
"There are two different sides to this argument; the true and the false. If one of them is wrong, the other is correct, you will agree?"   
"Oh–sure–whatever."   
Lily inwardly laughed outright. This was the beginning of his end. "If you percieve that I am not God, then that is simply your perception. Your task is to prove that your perception is correct, and, technically, that is impossible. But now, if I decide to tell you that I am God because you cannot prove that I am not, what would you have to say?"   
"That you're lying. But you're not God."

"But that is simply your perception. And your perception, may I take the liberty of stating, is often incorrect, seeing that perception is based on the senses. And the predominant sense is sight, upon which all other senses are based. Now, if your sight were taken away, then all of your other perceptions would be false, agreed?"   
"Well–sort of, yeah."   
She didn't miss a beat. "And, since you cannot prove that your sense of sight is with you at this very moment in time, all of your other perceptions are false. And if all of your other perceptions are untrue, then your perception of my perception is also false, which leaves my perception to be true, since we agreed farther back that if one perception is true, the other is automatically false, and vice versa. Now, since I have proved your perception to be false, my perception is the correct one. Do you understand?"   
His mouth was opening and closing like a goldfish.   
"No."   
"The conclusion being, after lengthy study of the subjects, that since my perception is the correct perception and that yours is the incorrect perception, that I am God. Any arguments?"   
He was obviously beaten. "No."   
Lily smirked. This was so darned easy, and so much fun!  
!   
Sirius then entered the compartment. "Well, are you two talking again?"   
James nodded.   
"James, for heaven's sake, shut you mouth!"   
He did so, quickly. "We're not talking. She is."   
Sirius was confused. "Huh?"   
"I have no idea what happened. She started to talk, and by the time she finished, I was convinced that she was God."   
Sirius shot a knowing glance.   
"Not like that. Logically, I mean. She can prove to you, in very long and confusing logical statements, that she is God, and I can't disprove it. Wait a minute there–" he turned to Lily–"prove that you are God!"   
She shrugged. "I don't need to. I am perfectly convinced of that myself, and if I am convinced, there is no need to convince myself further. But the only way something is disproved is if a person has a strong enough disbelief in it to prove otherwise, and seeing that you don't have that, since you can't even argue right, you must obviously believe that I am God. Discussion ended."   
Sirius laughed. He laughed so long and hard Lily almost had to clap her hands over his ears. When he finally stopped, Lily couldn't have been more grateful.   
"James, she's really something. And she's an enemy I wouldn't like to have."   
James frowned. "You really believe that you are God?"   
"Hah!" Lily tossed her head affectedly. "I am not God any more than you are a permanent and foul-weather friend."   
Sirius shook his head. "James, she has a point."   
James looked up at Sirius, as if begging him to help him, and to his annoyance, Sirius did just the opposite.   
"I'm leaving again, and I don't want pieces of you two blasted all over the floor when I come back. Lily, the wand stays in the trunk." Grinning in response to a scowling James, Sirius left, graciously refraining from slamming the compartment door.  
James grimaced at the closed door, and then, as if gathering strength, he squared his shoulders and slipped off of his seat, coming to rest at about six inches away from Lily, who had gone back to Death on the Nile. The wronged ex-fiancée was getting rather stormy after having several (four) double gins, and Lily was enjoying the confrontation.   
'Jacqueline swung round in her chair and glared at Simon.   
"You damned fool," she said thickly, "do you think you can treat me as you have done and get away with it?"'   
"Lily?"   
"Mmm?"   
"Umm–would you put that book away for a minute?"   
Lily, in a granting mood, especially since she had just wiped the floor with James in their last discussion, slipped a candy wrapper inside the pages as a substitute for a bookmark and placed it on the seat next to her. "Yes?"   
"I've wanted to talk to you for a while."   
"Go on."   
"I told you what I wanted to speak to you about on the Quidditch field this morning, didn't I?"   
"You did."   
"Well–I just wanted to say–maybe I was a bit wrong."   
Lily was more than a speck incredulous. "Maybe? A bit?"   
"Well, then I was all wrong."   
Lily nodded. "I like correctness. Please proceed."   
He was plainly exerting a great bit of self-control to smooth over her tartness, and unwillingly, Lily admired him for that.  
"Lily, I wish we could be like we were at the beginning of our first year. I really do. I've missed–well, being your friend and I haven't much enjoyed fighting with you."   
"You've certainly given a good enough impression of it up till now."   
"I'm sorry."   
"So 'I'm sorry' makes it all better now?"   
"It can help. But Lily, won't you at least try me, and see how this comes out?"   
She stared at him, as if divining his thoughts, and she had pushed back the secret door to his most private present fear. "And what about Serena? What'll she do to you if she finds we're friendly again?"   
He waved his hand, though Lily could tell it cost him an effort. "I don't care about her. I never have and never will."   
"That's direct proof that you don't mean a dust molecule of this. Oh, don't give yourself airs. I know you care for her and I know you always will. And don't think it hurts me to say it; I won't have you acting as if you were making me break my heart, which you're not."

He took a glance at her set, composed face, and read something in that countenance that no other person could possibly have divined: self-accusation, and one thing to be said to his credit was that he tried his hardest to lock up that attitude in the deepest vault he could find, with the intention to keep it there permanently. "Lily, right now that doesn't matter. I know you've been terribly unhappy at times, and–well–I know I've been the cause."   
"The amount you know is certainly frightening. Have you been spying on me?"   
"Not really."   
"What does that mean–not really?"   
"Sirius has. But that's beside the point. I don't want to fight with you and I don't–"   
"James, since Sirius left the room, you've used the word 'I' eighteen times. Will you get away from yourself as a topic?"   
"All right then. You haven't been happy, and at your age, you shouldn't know a thing of hardships and hate–and you're learning about them all too soon. Please."   
Lily, eyes shaded by dark, thick, bristly eyelashes, glanced down and saw the serious, calm, unruffled figure on the floor. Untouched, or seemingly so, by her harsh words, he seemed almost surreal, since all of the people she knew would have flared up if she had thrown that large a torch upon them.   
"All right. But you're to stop nagging me about the way I look."   
He stood up and bowed, in unconscious imitation of a dancing master. "With pleasure." His eye narrowed suddenly as he saw the faintest trace of pink appear under Lily's eyelids, and he instantly had gathered her in a comforting hug. "Please don't cry–never mind. Cry if you want to–it's the holding back of tears that makes people so terribly hard. Cry if you want to."   
Relief flooding her at his last words, she let the indignation, sorrow, hurt, anger, disdain, and pain of the last year flow onto his shoulder, grateful that she need not hold her tears back.Then, remembering herself, she pulled away, dried her tears hastily, and smiled weakly. "I'm dreadfully sorry. I didn't mean to throw myself at your head."   
He grinned. "You didn't. I hugged you then. But if anything of this gets back to Serena, you might just as well have." Lily frowned. "You mean you're framing me?"   
"No! You've had enough of that, haven't you. Don't answer that one. But anyway, I know enough of Serena to know that she's the kind that can get mighty jealous. And you don't want to get caught in her wrath, and frankly, neither do I."   
"Coward."   
"Well, I'm not exactly ashamed to admit it. There are few people in this world like Serena, and Serena's beautiful to boot. She's quite understanding and kind and sweet, but she can get terribly angry. And when she does, you don't want to face her alone." Lily sniffed again, though James didn't notice that it was at his description of Serena. "Like I said, you're a coward. I've faced her before, and she's not all that frightening. But," she added, clearly wishing to get off of the subject of Serena, "I am sorry about that. I needn't have done that—oh, but goodness knows I needed that hug. Do you know, Eva's been the only friend I've had that's stuck by me all through this year and last? I don't remember us ever fighting. And you and your friends used to find pleasure in spiting me."  
He wrinkled his nose. "Lily, I'm none too proud of that, and I wish, dearly wish I hadn't. Even if you do have a temper, you're about as good a friend as anyone could hope for."   
"Pity you didn't notice that till now."   
"I know."   
"James, what happened to you? You used to—well—to flare at every hint of a mean thing I said, and now—well, now you're kind of a rag doll that I'm taking my anger out on."   
"I decided that you need a punching bag. Go ahead, use me as one; I think I deserve whatever pain you can inflict." Regaining some of her old amused look, Lily flicked a lock of hair behind her ear lazily. "I can inflict much more than you could ever dream. That is not a wise offer to make."   
"Well, do you want me to take it back?"   
Before Lily could respond, the compartment door had slid open, and Sirius was lounging in the doorway   
"Oh, good, you two're talking again. James, next part. Don't be bashful; you told me you'd do this last night."   
James looked so nonplussed that Sirius and Lily started to laugh.   
"James, idiot, offer her the engagement ring!"   
Lily's nostrils flared a bit in disgust, and James glared murder at Sirius. "Sirius, I never said no such thing, and if you know what's good for you, shut your trap!"   
Giving in, grinning and sliding casually into a seat, Sirius shook his head. "But James, you had the diamond so nicely cut, and now you're refusing to—"   
"Sirius, I said watch it."   
And behind James, Lily was regaining her seat with raised eyebrows. The boys thought she was disgusted, but what she was really thinking was: 'If any fiancé of mine tries to give me a traditional diamond and gold ring, he's going to get socked. I'm getting my black pearl in a silver setting or he can check me off of that future family tree.'They arrived at King's Cross while it was still light outside, and for the first time in forever, it seemed, Lily had people help her to carry her trunk down. She could actually say goodbye to her friends with a hug, and she was so grateful for that. Walking out of the barrier with Eva next to her, she was greeted with strangling hugs from her parents and cold glares from Petunia, who, once again, had been threatened into coming. Eva, unaccustomed to Muggle transportation, was nervous and fidgety about getting into a car, and she was even more astonished when the car didn't transport them instantly to their home. However, she was slowly reconciling herself to the fact that Muggles were a bit slower in regards to transportation, and she and Lily were soon chatting excitedly about their planned vacation. When Petunia had seen Eva, she had backed away in fear, and now, when she was sitting next to her in the car—well, Petunia was plainly terrified. When the car finally came to a rest in front of the two-story brick building, Petunia was the first to spring out of the car and race into the house. When Lily and Eva did finally get their trunks inside, they were astonished, Lily most of all, at the unnatural cleanliness of the house. And when they passed by Petunia's usually terribly messy room, if Lily had been the fainting type, she would have fainted.

The walls were white and almost blinding, they were so clean, the bed made in hospital corners and covered with perfectly arranged pillows, not a speck of dirt on the new white carpet, and the occasional hanging plant in the corner. There was a pink-and-white rug on the floor, which Lily recognized as one that had been in her room earlier. And several paintings on the walls, paintings that were the height of blandness, or so Lily thought. They had pink flowers in bowls and in gardens, and there was a white vanity table in the corner, the top clean and white, the bottom covered in pale pink ruffles.   
Lily finally got past Petunia's room and got to her own, where she and Eva dumped their things. It suddenly struck her how odd and poor her own home must look, after Eva's stately mansion, but if Eva was at all displeased with her surroundings, she didn't show it.   
The next day, the two woke up early. Eva had Lily's bed, and Lily had a mattress on the floor. Eva, not used to twin mattresses, had rolled off, right onto Lily, and they were both sore and bruised.   
However, in about two seconds, they were up again, Lily having remembered that Eva had a stack of Filibuster's Wet-Start, No-Heat fireworks in her trunk. With a mischievous glint in her eye, she and Eva crept over to Petunia's room, the sound of her snoring coming from within.   
Lily, quiet as a breath of wind in midafternoon, slipped inside the door, and, knowing Petunia far too well, she simply set two crackers right next to Petunia's bedslippers. Then, again, noiselessly she crept back out after setting the alarm Petunia had on her white nightstand to go off any minute. It did, too; a shrill, nasty, dinging sound that Lily felt was most eardrum-murdering.  
Silently giggling, the girls watched Petunia jump up in bed and, yawning, fling her feet over the side. She looked down, and, almost instantly, let out a shriek more piercing than the sound of her clock had been.   
She had spotted the fireworks. Leaping out of bed, still screaming, Petunia ran for the plain white pitcher of water she kept nearby to water her plants, and, dashing back, she dumped the contents all over the fireworks, intending to make them unusable and to put out any hidden trace of a fuse that would set the crackers off.   
But not for nothing had they been called Wet-Start firecrackers. Lily and Eva were delighted to see that they lived up to their name. The instant Petunia had soaked the floor with her plant water, the crackers had gone off.   
It was a beautiful sight. Blue and green sparks issuing from one, red and orange from the other, and the nice popping sound that went with any Filibuster product. The room, so pleasantly white before, was scorched in some places, where the sparks struck, and it was no longer white and cafeteria-like. When the firecrackers had finally finished, which did take some time, Petunia was still trying madly to get green sparks out of her hair and off of her bed, and when she saw the damage done to her room, she let out an earsplitting wail.   
Lily and Eva got back to their room as fast as they could, trying to escape that inhuman sound that penetrated their ears and made them wish for earplugs. Luckily, however, the noise didn't prevent the large messenger owl from practically making a crack in the window with his beak. Quickly, for fear of more damage to the house, Lily flung the window open. The owl dropped two envelopes and swirled out immediately, not waiting to even take a drink of water from Alisande's tray.  
Lily dashed over to the bed, where the two letters had landed. Picking them up, she read the addresses aloud.   
"From Vanessa to Eva. Here." She tossed the letter over to her friend and turned the next over. "To Lily. I know this writing." She ripped the envelope open and unfolded a long sheet of parchment; actually, two long sheets.


	21. Letters

_Lily, I know you were probably very exhausted and sick of everything on the train, and I'm not expecting you to be a saint to me afterwards. Sirius told me I should write this: that when girls are upset, they don't know who they're confessing to, just so long as they're doing it. Sock him, not me. It wasn't my idea. Anyway, you're perfectly entitled to be mean to me; it must be terrible for you: the person you've been fighting with be the one to hear you break down. I don't hate you; not anymore.   
Come to that, I think I never did. I don't know why I was fighting with you; and I understand completely that I was being quite a—well, I'll not say what you have the right to call me. You'd never attack anyone, now like I thought you did, and I'm sorry for suspecting you. Sorry for accusing you and sorry for everything else, sorry for the continual cold shoulders and a terrible year.   
I want you to know that you'll always be one of my very best friends no matter what, and even if you decide to hate me, I'll still hold you in the highest respect, because I deserve your hate. I know you may think me an awful fool for writing this, and perhaps I am, but I wanted you to know this.  
This is getting terribly long, and you're probably thinking, "Good Lord, what kind of an idiot would keep on repeating himself?" The reason for that is that I desperately want you to know how sorry I am. Eva told me you've been having one hell of a year, and that's it's all my fault. I'm not disputing that at all, because, for one thing, when it comes to me, I know the truth when I hear it, even if I don't usually acknowledge it. And now I am, and I wish I didn't have to. That is, I wish I hadn't put myself in the position where I had to say this. Anyway, it's said, or rather written, that I've been an idiot, which you've probably already characterized me as. I don't blame you one bit.   
Still, I want to ask you if you can find it in one part of your heart to forgive me. You don't really strike me as one of the most forgiving people–that wasn't meant as an offense–so I should hold your forgiveness even higher than if I was in this situation with someone else. Please. This is the most eloquent letter I've ever written or hope to write, ever, and the strange thing is that, so far, this is my first version. Almost like I could say the same thing to your face if I wasn't so terribly shy of apologizing to a person. It's so much easier to do it in a letter. That's a good piece of advice, if you ever have to say you're sorry. Just thought I'd mention that.   
I'm on the middle of the second page now, and I haven't really written much. In fact, all I've written is wind, and so much of it that it's turning into a tornado. But still, I hope you get my point; I've tried my best to say I'm sorry, and–oh, what you said on the train that day was right. I use the word "I" too much, and I'm appearing as a self-centered fool. But then, that's probably what I am. You know what they say–you can always tell what a person is like by the way he writes. And that holds true for me.   
But if you can find it in your heart to forgive this self-centered, arrogant, presumptuous, semi-permanent, fair-weather punching bag, I'd be eternally grateful and beyond.   
  
–James_

_P.S. Sirius just snatched this from me and made the comment that it looks frighteningly like a love letter. That's the thought that was farthest from my mind when I started to write this, and since I have no intention of making several drafts of this letter so you can get the perfect edition, you're getting the rough draft with all of my faults on it.   
I just thought you'd be avoiding me if I didn't add this post-script, since, on re-reading this, it does sound terribly like a love letter. Trust me. It's not. If you doubt my word on this, think of what Serena would say if she found I'd written a letter to you with only the faintest trace of a suggestion of that topic in it.   
I hope that proves my point, and I hope we're going to be on speaking terms when we get back to Hogwarts and that I'm not messing up every chance I had by writing this. It just seemed like the best thing to do, and I'm going to send this before I get cold feet. Cold fingers, actually, but you know what I mean. And no, I'm not going to prove that._

  
Lily smiled indulgently, folding up the letter. Ignoring the "Lil, let me see!"s Eva was squealing, she stuffed it inside her trunk, pulling out parchment and ink of her own. Green ink, but then that was the only kind she hadn't used up of that stock she laid up her first time in Diagon Alley.   
  
_Pre-script: James, you're a terribly bad correspondent. Just writing 'Lily,' at the beginning, and not giving me a hint as to how I should address my letter. And what if I wrote 'Dear James' at the beginning of this and you teased me for the rest of my life about it? And what if I omitted the heading and you thought me rude, or if I wrote 'Dear Mr. Potter', or 'Hello there, you skunk'? I'd sound so formal and stiff, and so mean. And you've been rude enough for the both of us. The only path left for me to take, it seems, is to do the same thing that you did. It is common for friends to use the 'Dear Whoever' heading, isn't it? Good. I thought so. And, to address another point in your letter, the word 'hell' can be omitted. That doesn't even remotely define the type of year I had.   
Dear Whoever,   
I didn't think your letter was in the least like a love letter; what I really thought was: "Good grief, he's sounding like he's saying this on his deathbed and has to get it all out before it's too late." Sirius has too much of an imagination, don't you think so? I do. That means you do, because I can't tolerate opposition, as you've doubtless noticed.   
Since I'm writing to you now, I suppose I have to speak to you afterwards. Almost like in Gone with the Wind, where Scarlett is taken to everyone's house by Melanie, and the hostesses can't turn her away because of Melanie, but after they've received her, they can't cut her afterwards. That's just like this. I'm writing to you and being friendly, so it'd be a bit odd for me to be as mean as I could afterwards.   
No, I'll be perfectly nice to you in public and private, unless you insist on injuring me again. Oh, don't draw any conclusions from that. You angered me when you used me, and you made me livid when you started to accuse me and all the rest, but don't flatter yourself by thinking that you had such a hold on my poor innocent heart that I was actually hurt by anything you said or did. I don't think we'll ever get to be such good friends that you can ever hurt me, but that isn't going to prevent me from being nice. At least, as nice as I can get, which, knowing me, isn't much.   
  
–Lily  
  
Post-script: There is such a thing as a pre-script, isn't there? There is now.   
Oh, and Eva's been looking over my shoulder while I'm writing this and she insists that I should put in lots of "Oh, of course I forgive you's in here, but you know me well enough to know that that 's not the type of stuff I write. And, like you, I'm not making a final draft. If we keep up this correspondence, we should swear solemnly not to re-write or cross out anything. Spelling mistakes don't count. And don't try to palm off a whole sentence as a spelling mistake. That's cheating. But, unlike you, I'd say this in public and to your face. I don't care much for public opinion, as doubtless you have noticed.   
Post-post-script: Sirius, I don't care if you tell the whole school, and I know you're going to look for this letter and find it if he doesn't show it to you, as you seem to know where every other bit of James' things are. So don't try to blackmail James. I don't care if you hang this from the ceiling at breakfast, and you know I don't. And I can train James not to care, and you know I can. _  
  
Snatching her letter out of Eva's grip, she folded it in sixths and placed it inside one of her envelopes, noticing with satisfaction that if James thought her letter was complete balderdash, he'd probably not be able to read most of it, as she had quite tiny writing. Giving Alisande an Owl Treat, she quickly scribbled a "To James from the person who had to decipher two pages of your terrible writing" on the front and handed the letter to her owl, who immediately took off into the pale pink clouds. Lily scowled at the tint of the masses of evaporated water, thinking that she infinitely preferred the deep orange and gold it had been earlier. But then the smell of bacon from downstairs made Lily and Eva dash for the kitchen, quickly pull the scones out of the oven and sit down to a breakfast, which, even if it wasn't in the same scale as that at Eva's or Hogwarts, was still very good.  
Later that evening, James' owl arrived again. This time, it accepted a Spearmint Owl Treat (gives your owl minty smelling breath!) before soaring off again. Lily immediately ripped the envelope open and pulled out a foot-long bit of parchment with infinitely neater writing on it, bursting into laughter at the first few sentences.   
  
_Dear Lily,   
I give. Don't tease me about the heading. Sirius saw it and burst into the most unmale fit of giggles I thought it was safe to have. I got a bit nervous and left. I'm in the library now. I hope he won't look for me here, and if he does, I have a book nearby that I'm going to cover this with. Here's your piece of writing you asked for, the contract thingy. All right, maybe you didn't ask for it, but still, here it is:   
  
I hereby faithfully swear that I shall not send Lily any second, third, or above drafts of letters. What I send her will be strictly my first draft, and if I do send her a final copy, I will also send her my rough draft.   
  
Signed: James Potter_

_Happy?__ If not, send me a revised version, and I'll sign it. But you've got to sign exactly the same thing, too. You know what I just thought? You probably don't, but you're hearing it anyway. __Reading__, I meant. See, I had this crazy idea, probably inspired by my friend who's looking for me and is outside the door right now, that if you and me got married, and if we kept these letters, what utter balderdash (if I may use the phrase) our kids would think this is. They'd probably be right, too. Eva'd probably tell you that this is a proposition, but I'm imploring you to listen to your good sense and go with your first impression, which I hope I can pin down correctly: Where did that come from?   
Well? Was I right? I certainly hope so. If so, tell me, and if not, tell me what it was.   
Sirius is searching behind the bookshelves, so I'm just going to say Thank Mum for a half-way concealed armchair in this book-wilderness and goodbye. Thank Mum for a half-way concealed armchair in this book-wilderness and goodbye.   
–James_  
Lily grinned again and handed over the letter to Eva, who, as Lily expected, burst into a fit of giggles when she saw the 'what if we were married' sentence.   
"Lily, he likes you! Read this; he's practically proposed!" She squealed again, and Lily rolled her eyes.   
"Eva, dear, read the next bit."   
Eva obeyed and her face dropped.   
"Lily, he just had to write this, didn't he?"   
"He did."   
"Oh, well." She thrust the letter aside, flung herself onto Lily's bed, which Lily was now going to be occupying, and rolled over on her stomach, kicking up her heels.   
"Lily, even if he wrote that, do you think he was serious?"   
Lily put down her quill and ink bottle. "Eva, he has Serena!"   
"Well…so? I mean, yeah, Serena is a guy's dream, all plastic and things, but when you get right down to it, you're a real person. I bet the deepest thought she's ever had is "Geez, the reason things fall is because I dropped them. Come on, you're smarter than her any day!"   
Lily sniffed. "Eva, dear, boys can't stand girls that're smarter than they are. And in this case, James has no other option than to take her. Oh, I'll admit she's smart when it comes to boys, but she doesn't think, I'll agree with you there. And I'm definitely off of the list for him when it comes to possible future girls. For Pete's sake, I'm only twelve!"   
"Thirteen in June."   
"Oh, right. Anyway, he's a year older than me. And even if I were older, no one would be the slightest bit interested."   
"Why not?"   
"I'm terribly ugly and have a smart mouth. No guy wants to even have his name mentioned in connection with someone who looks as bad as I do." Over the last year, Lily had paid so little attention to her appearance that she had come to know herself as a tousled, orange-headed, skinny little girl looking about seven instead of almost thirteen, and she did nothing to dispel this image from her mind.   
"Liar!" Eva sat up in bed, indignation written all over her face. "You looked so–so pretty when you first came to Hogwarts! And you still are. They're just too darned blind to see past your messy braids! Don't look at me like that. They are messy. If you'd just let me work with you a bit, you'll see. And so will they."  
Suddenly businesslike, Eva jumped off of the bed and marched over to her trunk, which included makeup and hair products for "the day when Mother finally stops being so stubborn." What that really meant was for when she was fifteen and her mother decided to let her wear makeup.   
After burrowing in the powder-blue trunk for a while, she came up with a small wooden box. She slid back the lid and pushed Lily down, as far away from a mirror as possible, in case Lily decided this was nonsense and left.   
Lily had to put up with many long minutes of untangling her hair while Eva washed it in a small basin. Then, putting it up in quite pri ckly curlers, Eva started to work with makeup.   
Eva was obviously in her element; Lily was skeptical. After a good two hours (it took that long because Petunia had broken the hairdryer and Lily's hair had to be air-dried), Eva had finished. She had also discovered a Muggle shirt that actually fit Lily; most of her shirts were baggy and much too big. This one was one she had been given as a gift when she was eight, and it was a beautiful forest green. Pulling out a pair of pale blue jeans from Lily's dresser, Eva threw them over to her friend, who, shaking her head, pulled them on.   
When Lily had slipped into the clothes, Eva led Lily over to a mirror; the one that was over the bathroom sink. It is an understatement to say that Lily was shocked.She had never seen herself like this, not for a year, and the only thing she recognized was her nose; slender, with a small tilt. Her hair had been washed thoroughly, with a darkening sort of conditioner, and the full luster of her burgundy curls shone brightly. She needed no powder on her face, but Eva had put especial work into her eyes. The deep forest-green tigress eyes shone out with a sheen they had never had before. Dark and fathomless, they gazed out into the mirror, rimmed and enhanced with a hint of deep violet around the lashes, which, bristly, long and thick, were shaded black. Her lips, cutting a burgundy line through her face, parted to show the white, pearly teeth. Two small emeralds, placed in silver settings, pierced the lobe of each of her ears and sparkled with a bright glitter through the tumble of curls. Lily stared.   
"Eva?"   
"I told you."   
"Told me what?"   
"Look at you. You're beating Serena with a rawhide whip–she's never looked like this! Never."   
Lily turned away from her reflection. "But Serena's so–so–"   
"So–what? Exactly. So what?"   
"Well, poised and dignified and pretty and–Eva, she's got that long blond hair and blue eyes and charm–I haven't got the least bit of that!"   
Eva laughed, a scornful, short chuckle.   
"Lily, you don't need charm. You've really already got it. And I'm even regretting doing this to you, because any attention I ever hoped to get is sorta crushed. And if James sees you like this, he'll dump Serena in a flash. I'd bet my life on that."

Lily had stood up, eyes widening. "He would?"   
Eva nodded. "Definitely."   
Standing up sharply, Lily ran to the sink. She turned on the faucet and let the water run over her hair, washing the curl out. Letting the cool stream run over her face, she wiped off all of the makeup. She reached behind her, grabbed a towel off of a hook, and wrapped it around her wet hair. Lily removed the earrings and slapped them into Eva's hand, closing her fingers about them, twisted the towel a few times, and shook her hair down. Eva simply stood there, shocked.   
"Wh–what'd you do that for?"   
Lily's eyes were blazing and she was clearly in a state of excitement. "I'm not going to ruin everything they have. He's happy, and I want him to stay that way. If he's not interested in a little twelve-year-old, he has his reasons. I'm not going to try to win him over with this–" she gestured to the makeup kit–"and then have him leave me if I–if I have vitriol thrown on me. I'm winning the husband I'll end up with by anything but looks. I hate the way I look, and I'm not going to give up happiness I might have with someone who understands me for someone who only likes my hair." After that speech, delivered with fire in her eyes and the impression of energy held into her frame by force, she dashed outside, only to fling her arms around a large tree trunk and sink, breathless, to the ground.  
She stayed there a long time, for Eva, wise beyond her years, had judged that it was best to leave her friend alone for the time being. Somewhere between four o'clock and sunset, Lily got up, dusted herself off, and went into the house for paper and ink. Finding a queer relief in writing, she addressed her letter.   
  
_Dear James,   
Your hunch of what I would say was totally wrong. Actually, the first thing I thought was, "Well, that makes sense." Not, "What utter balderdash." Still, it was a good try on your part.   
Here's your contract. Sign it:   
  
I, James Potter, hereby faithfully swear, forever and beyond, to be the slave of Lily Evans and to fulfil her slightest impulse.   
  
Signed: .   
  
There. That would be more like it. I signed exactly the same thing myself, in case you were wondering. Didn't change a single word.   
Eva had fun today with makeup. Her makeup, that is; Serena has the stuff you gave me. Eva decided that I would look ever so charming if I tried to, so she put my hair up in curlers and painted my eyelids and did all sorts of uncomfortable things that, when put together, took two hours, and then was surprised when I told her that I didn't have the slightest intention of doing this every day. I mean, would you get up at four-thirty just so as to get ready? I thought not.   
Still, she should be rather satisfied with the results. The results being that I finally caved and decided the throw away all of my pants that I ripped climbing trees and cliffs. So now I really only have three pairs left. But she's not getting anywhere if she decides to make me throw out all of the T-shirts that go down mid-way to my knees. And if she does do that, I'm going to be going around wearing white shirts with the top three buttons undone and a loose tie around my neck. See how she likes that.  
Why did I start talking about clothes? I don't know. There's no point to it, really. Still, it was the best thing I came up with, so…so I wrote it down.   
This is going to sound really vain and stuck-up and conceited, but I have to ask this of you, because I have the funny feeling that you're going to give me an honest answer: Do you think I would be more liked if I tried to do something with my hair and eyes and things? I was just wondering, and it seemed to me that Eva would be a biased witness, because she did the artistic part.   
If you don't want to answer, don't, but please don't laugh.   
  
–Lily   
  
Post-script: Somehow, writing this makes me feel better. I don't know why, but it does. _  
  
Over the next few days, Lily and James corresponded regularly, in between the trips Lily and Eva took to swimming pools or fencing tournaments (Lily placed ninth out of eighteen) or to some of Lily's nearby friends' houses.   
James' reply to her last letter, though, was rather short. She had asked him if she should keep it sort of hidden that they were corresponding; would it make Serena mad? He had written a very laconic reply.   
  
_DO NOT TELL ANYONE!_  
  
When the Easter break was over, though much sooner than Eva and Lily expected it would be, they were nevertheless ready to get back to Hogwarts. Eva was interested in the Muggle world and Lily was anxious to practice her fencing, but they were both sick and tired of Petunia's nagging every single time they spilled some milk on the floor or orange juice on the table. So, by the end of the vacation, they were excited and chirpy at the prospect of seeing all of their friends again and getting away from Petunia.   
The morning of their return trip, Lily had been forced to leave the dining room, since if she had stayed, she most certainly would have lit into Petunia for ranting a long tirade about how nice, quality people never got syrup on the phone and how Lily just made more work for everyone whenever she was home, and how she was royally sick of Lily and all of her stupid stuck-upness on account of her being able to do magic. Pressing her lips together, Lily roughly shook off Eva's hand, lunged towards Petunia, watched her sister retreat in satisfaction, and stalked outside, slamming the door loudly.

The trunks were all loaded into the car by the time her parents called her. Lily was quite thankful that, as Petunia had just turned fourteen, her parents trusted her enough to stay at home alone, so the car had only four occupants.   
"Lily, honey?"   
"What, Dad?"   
"Are you so advanced now so that we can't hug you goodbye?"   
Lily scoffed. "Dad. Please."   
"Is that a yes or a no?"   
"I'm not going to see you till summer. And I'm not selfish like that."   
He smiled into the rear-view mirror. "Thanks, hon. It's just that Petunia kicked up a fuss when your mother hugged her at a school assembly, and she screamed through the whole car ride home."   
"Oh, Dad, you know I'm not a brat like Petunia. And yes, she is one. Don't try to tell me differently."   
"Lily!" Her mother turned around in her seat. "Don't talk about your sister like that!"   
Lily would have responded with a "What sister?", but as the car stopped at King's Cross and her mother looked murderous, she reconsidered.   
The baggage was quickly loaded onto two trolleys, and, forgetting completely about her parents, Lily headed into the barrier, having just caught sight of James and Sirius.  
  
She purposely crashed into Sirius' trolley, and, with an exaggerated moan, she caught her stomach and fell over onto the cobblestones with her trunk and bags on top of her.. The boys hurried over, Sirius apologizing profusely for what he thought he'd done.   
"Lily, are you all right? I—I'm so sorry—I don't know how that happened—here, let me help. James—idiot—" here he waved to his friend—"help me with this trunk." They were lifting the heavy black and gold trunk off of her, carefully, and offered to help her into a compartment. With a weak nod, she accepted, and as she sank into a seat, trying to flex her wrists and giving short gasps for air, she wondered just how good she'd be at acting in plays. Probably very good, she told herself, but practice couldn't hurt. And this was just the perfect place for practice.  
Gathering her features into a pained frown, she managed to convince the boys that she was badly hurt. In whispers which Lily could hear perfectly well, though they were unaware of it, they determined that not for an instant should they leave her alone, lest something else happen to her. Lily knew that they wouldn't have spoken to her on the platform. James certainly wouldn't, for he had asked her in his last letter if she was going to blackmail him with the contents. It had been too late for her to answer it, and so she had a shrewd suspicion that he was going to stay out of her way as much as possible. Therefore, she had done her best with a quickly contrived ruse to make them notice her, so they couldn't use the excuse; "Well, we didn't see you" later, after not speaking to her for the trip. Still, she hadn't expected this to work so well, and she hadn't expected not to be mashed to death beneath that trunk. Resolving to milk this situation for all it was worth; probably the last time she would ever get a chance to talk to them without anyone else around and without poisonous influences from a certain damsel in distress, she lifted her head.   
"Hi."   
They whirled around. "Lily! You're all right!"   
"Well, that depends. I might not be. What happened?"   
Sirius looked rather nervous and James looked quite concerned. "You—you mean you don't remember?"   
"Remember what?"   
"Sirius, you idiot! If she's got amnesia, your family's paying the medical bills."   
"Don't be stupid. Well—don't be stupider than usual is what I mean. She's not lost her mind. Lily?"   
"What?" She grimaced once more as she rested her head on the back of her seat.   
"I crashed into you with my trolley."   
"So that was what it was! I was almost convinced someone had dropped a mountain on me!"   
"That was your trunk."   
"Oh. That explains it."   
"Yeah…You sure you're all right?"   
"Fine. Fine." She let her head drop to the side, and Sirius, standing up and making for the door, mumbled something about getting the baggage. He left, leaving Lily and James in the compartment, James fidgeting with a loose thread on his robes and Lily staring at him with a wide-eyed, innocent expression as if she had not the least bit of an idea of what was going through his mind. Even though she did have a very good idea.  
"Lily?"   
"Oh—what?"   
"You never answered my last letter. You're not—you're not going to show them around, will you? Not that I wouldn't put it past you, but you know—please don't do that!"   
"Shoulda thought of that before, shouldn't you?"   
He hung his head, looking every inch like a kicked puppy. "I should have. But please—if you've any mercy in you at all—don't blackmail me with those things."   
She shook her head. "You have a terribly suspicious nature. I never intended to do that in the first place."   
"You didn't? But—but then why didn't you write me back?"   
"I was in the middle of packing my trunk, and if I had stopped to write anything at all, Mother would have done something terrible to me."   
"Oh." He looked terribly relieved and sank back against the back of his seat, breathing again. Funny—Lily thought—she hadn't noticed he was holding it. "Thanks."   
"Why would you think I would?"   
"Wouldn't put it past you."   
"You have a point. But never mind that—are you going to be speaking to me once we get to Hogwarts?"   
He looked unexpectedly like a deer caught in headlights. "Um—er—err—"   
"Is that a no?"   
"Er—"

"Is that a no?"   
"Er—"   
"Is that a no?"   
"I—I—umm, Lily—"   
"Well, what?"   
"Lily, you know I care for Serena a lot, don't you?"   
Lily raised her eyebrows. "I didn't notice," she said rather drily.   
"Well—see, Serena doesn't especially like you."   
"I didn't notice that, either."   
He went on as if she had not said anything. "And I don't know why I want to be your friend—you know you hang around Snape and Malfoy—"   
"You mean Serverus and Lucius."   
"Yeah, them. And I couldn't tell you why I seem to want to talk to you—I guess it's because you're different from anyone else I've ever met—you temper, you know. And I do like Serena, more than I think I could ever like you. But the darned problem is that you two hate each other beyond any hatred I've ever encountered, and I'm at a loss as to how to have both of you for my friends."   
"You only want Serena as a friend?"   
James turned a deep red and tried to hide the blush that was creeping up his cheeks. "Yes—no—yes—oh, never mind. Never mind. I didn't say anything."   
"I didn't notice."   
"Didn't notice what?"   
"I didn't notice that you didn't say anything."  
"Huh? Oh, shut up."   
"Get stuffed."   
"Go eat hamster guts."   
"No."   
"Why not?"   
"Because snake ribs taste so much better."   
"You are disgusting."   
"I can also dissect and put back together a human brain in a half hour."   
"I repeat what I said. You're disgusting."   
"Have you ever looked at the insides of a fetal pig?"   
He was a bit flabbergasted. "And when did you do this?"   
"I have several high-school relatives that take anatomy."   
"Oh. Just don't dissect me!" He half smiled, but it faded when he caught sight of Lily's interested and excited expression. "Don't you dare!"   
"Ugh." She wrinkled her nose. "Boys. There's only a seventy-five percent chance I'd kill you, so stop being such a baby."   
"I don't want to die!"   
Lily rolled her eyes. "What are you going to have done with your body when you're dead?"   
James stared at her. "WHAT"   
"You know, cremation, burial, organ donation…"   
"Why?"   
"If I live after you, I want to take a look at your brain if you decide to become an organ donor."   
"Why"   
"I just want to see how little wrinkles your brain has."   
"What the—"   
"This should be common knowledge. Every fact you know creates a wrinkle in your brain, or so they say. I just wondered if it was true that your brain is as smooth as the end of a baby's spine."   
"The end of a baby's spine?"   
"Fine; if this has to be put to you in words of one syllable: a baby's butt."   
"Gee, thanks! I oughta—"   
"You oughta make up your mind pretty quick as to whether or not you're going to be talking to me."   
"Huh? I mean, why now? We were having such a good argument—oh. I see." He gulped and looked out of the pane of glass in the compartment's doorway. Serena was standing outside, talking to Eva.  
"Well?" Lily was sitting perfectly upright in her seat, the picture of old-maidish primness, ankles crossed and mouth pursed in a ridiculous O.   
"I—uh—er—"   
"Mr. Potter, that is not a verifiable answer. Ten points from Gryffindor."   
He scowled at her. "You're not helping any."   
Lily dropped her attitude. "I'm trying to!"   
"You are not—How?"   
"By making myself as unlikable as possible. Answer!" She rapped his knuckles sharply with her hand, and he removed it from the chair ledge, massaging his hand.   
"All right, all right. I'll not talk to you, if that's what you want. Bye." Standing up stormily, he slammed the compartment door open and waved a careless hello to Eva, putting his arm around Serena's shoulders at the same time.   
Lily sat in her seat, shaking her head. "Either that boy's hopelessly insane, or he just hates me. I'd say both. In fact, I will say both. Both."   
When they arrived at Hogwarts, it was dark and stars were twinkling sleepily in a forest-black sky. The air was warm and gentle, and for an instant Lily wished she could stay here forever. But then she caught sight of a round, pale moon waving at the school from behind a bank of clouds, and she hurried on inside, trying very hard not to notice the brown-haired boy being led across the grounds to the Whomping Willow by someone who looked suspiciously like the school nurse.


	22. Eva's advice and a letter from the Minis...

The school feast was delicious, as usual, but Lily was too busy being nervous and wondering if she was the only one that had seen Remus to notice anything else. It was quickly time for bed, and Lily wandered to her dormitory, surprisingly drowsy and not yet sleepy. She tried to go to sleep, but around one in the morning she gave up, threw on the cloak Serverus had given her, and drifted back downstairs into the common room.   
She stopped in the shadow of the girls' dormitory stairway. The common room was already occupied, and Lily knew that the occupants wouldn't stick at performing several hundred Memory Charms on her if they discovered her.   
"Did you get into Pince's library?"   
Sirius shook his head. "The darned owl seals it every night. I couldn't."   
"Don't you know how to pick locks?"   
"I tried Alohomora, but that didn't work."   
James rolled his eyes. "You idiot. We're going to have to go back again. And to think I trusted you."   
"Wh—why?"   
"You can pick the messed up lock the Muggle way even if Pince seals it. We need that book."   
"So? I mean, does it have to be tonight?"   
"Uh—well—if we want to do this anytime soon, yeah."   
"Oh, all right. Changing subject now."   
"What for?" James looked puzzled.   
"Curiosity is a dangerous thing to have if it's in my hands. What did you and Lily say to each other after I left?"   
"Me and who?"   
"Lily."   
"I've never spoken to her in my life."   
"Liar."   
"Oh, fine, all right—Sirius, I just don't want Serena to find out that I—"   
"That you what?"   
Lily pricked her ears, straining to hear every whispered bit.  
"Erm—that I—"   
"James, you chicken, no one's awake but us. That you what?"   
James broke. "Sirius, this is going to sound terribly odd. I—"   
"It probably is. Then again, I'm talking to you, so it won't be out of the ordinary."   
"Shut up. See—the problem is—you know I like Serena, right?"   
"Obvious, my dear Watson, quite obvious."   
"And it's not exactly uncommon knowledge that Lily and Serena hate each other. Don't bother to respond to that one. And see—"   
"You've said the word 'see' too many times."   
"Only twice. But still—don't you see what I'm trying to say?"   
"Thrice."   
"Is that a no or a yes?"   
"It's a 'quite frankly, I haven't the faintest idea.'"   
"Oh." James frowned. "I stink at explaining."   
"You stink, period."   
"I do not!"   
"Oh, calm down. What about Lily?"   
James clenched his fists, looked about the common room, then turned back to Sirius, satisfied that they were alone.   
"Sirius, she's an awesome person. She's brilliant and funny and nice to be around when she isn't mad—the only problem is, she's terribly ugly and has the worst smart mouth ever. And I've been thinking—if you combined Serena's looks and Lily's good side of her personality, they'd make the perfect girl—but the problem is—What?"   
Sirius had been trying for some minutes to keep from laughing, and he finally burst out into a series of snorts. When he calmed down, he was still smirking broadly.   
"James, this is getting stupid. You're only a third year, for Tommy the Basset Hound's sake. Stop this whole girl nonsense."   
"Tommy the Basset Hound?"   
"It's more original than 'for Pete's sake'. Come on, forget those two. You'll have plenty enough time for all that mess in a few years."   
James sighed. "Oh, all right. But at least tell me how I'm to get both of them to be my friends at the same time."   
"Impossible. And you're wrong."   
"Huh? Wrong about what?"   
"Remember when you were listing Lily's faults? Trust me, if she tried, she'd be beating the guys here off with a rawhide whip."   
James raised his eyebrows. "Uh-huh. Right. I'm going to bed." He stood up, tucked the book he had been reading under his arm, and headed for the dormitory stairs.   
"James, you idiot!"   
James turned around. "What?"   
"That's the girls' dormitory!"   
"Huh?" James looked about him, then blushed a deep red. "Oops. Forgot."   
"Forgot what? If you can forget that easily that you don't belong in the girls' dormitory, we need to have a talk."  
"Talk?"   
"James, either you're the most absent-minded idiot I've ever encountered or there are some things you haven't told me about."   
"Sirius, shut up."

When both of them had left the common room, Lily curled up in the largest armchair there was, pulled out The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas from underneath the cushion and flipped to D'Artagnan's first encounter with the Cardinal's guards. Absorbed in the fight, she didn't notice a foot step right in front of her; a foot minus a person. She only looked up when the foot spoke.   
"Lil?"   
"Huh? I mean—hey! James, Remus or Sirius?"   
The foot frowned. "Where did you pull those names from?"   
She shrugged. "Number one, you've got access to just about the only Invisibility Cloak I know of; two, Peter's too scared to get out of bed because of the vitriol-throwers and ax-murderers we have wandering around Hogwarts."   
"We do?"   
"Oh, and I forget those ghosts that'll as soon kill you as look at you. Peter's wise to stay in bed."   
"He's just a wuss. Lil, I need to talk to you."   
"Who are you?"   
"That's beside the point. I—"   
"No, it's not. I might be spilling deep and dark secrets to the very person I want to hide them from. Take the cloak off, James Potter."   
Looking rather sheepish, James emerged, balling the cloak up and sitting on it. He looked over at Lily and was surprised to see her trying to hold in peals of laughter.   
"What? Did my hair just turn green or something?"   
"James." Lily was having a hard time keeping a three-fourths straight face. "Look down."   
James did so.   
"Not at your feet, idiot."   
"What—where—"   
"The end of your spine."   
James looked down again, then looked up at Lily, rolling his eyes. "Shut up."   
"Stop sitting on that cloak. It really does make you look like you have no butt."   
Glaring playfully, he pulled the silvery thing out from underneath him and turned to Lily. "Lil?"   
"What?"   
"Don't try to lie—you heard what I was telling Sirius?"   
"When?"   
"About an hour ago. You were standing in the dorm hallway."   
"And you saw me when you 'accidentally' tried to go up there."   
"Stop! It was an accident!"   
"Uh-huh, yeah, sure, right."   
"You don't believe me?"   
"I believe you're speaking the truth just as I believe that you're going to ask me to hook you up with Professor Dumbledore."   
"Oh."   
"You were really going to ask me that?"   
"WHAT?"  
"Never mind. What did you want to say?"   
"Oh—that. Well, I saw you on the landing, so I know you heard what I said."   
"I did. Don't fool yourself by thinking I was hurt; I know what you said about me is true."   
He stared at her as if in a new light. "Lily, you're not mad?"   
"No."   
"Any other girl would have torn my eyes out for that."   
"I'm not that vain. And I recognize truth when I hear it."   
"Well—did you hear what Sirius said?"   
"I did, and I think he needs glasses."   
At that, James laughed loudly, throwing his head back and making several people upstairs stir. "Lily, you're really something, you know that?"   
"Something as in an Orc or an electrocuted phoenix?"   
"Oh, forget that, won't you?"   
"I have a very retentive memory."   
"I noticed."   
"Well. Back to the point. What did you want to tell me?"   
He nodded, seemingly in a state of indecision, then squared his shoulders. "Lil, I need to tell you something."   
"Shoot. I'm ready when you are."   
"I'm not going to be an idiot and throw you over simply because of someone else. You've been a better friend to Remus than probably anyone else could have been, you know, last year, and I was stupid to forget how you stood by him."   
"Do you want me to comment?"   
"No. Let me finish."   
"Go on." She settled herself in the armchair and draped the black cloak comfortably about her shoulders.   
"I don't want to lose you as a friend. I think you're the best person I can talk to in this whole stinking school, and I'd be honored if thou wouldst condescend to the level of considering me as thy friend."   
"Stop the medieval language. All right. But I warn you, you taught me some good jinxes and I haven't forgotten how to use them."   
"I invented a new one over Easter break."   
"Really?"   
"Yeah. Lemme get my wand; it's a nifty little spell."  
In the morning, Eva found Lily and James joking around in the common room, with Lily practicing the jinx James had just taught her and accepting a piece of gum he'd just offered. Frowning slightly, she pulled her friend to one side.   
"Lily?"

"Morning!"   
Eva frowned. "You're in a good mood. Listen, I need to ask you something."   
"OK; go ahead."   
"Not here," Eva hissed. She tugged at Lily's sleeve till Lily finally followed her out of the portrait hole and into an empty classroom.   
"What?"   
"It's about that Potter kid."   
"James? Yeah, what about him?"   
"Lily, you're on pretty good terms with him now, aren't you?"   
"Uh-huh. So?" She blew a large bubble and snapped it loudly.   
"Well, wasn't he rude and mean as can be earlier this year?"   
"Well—yeah, but he said he was sorry."   
Eva shook her head. "Lily, this is going too far. Do you know how many times he's acted this way and you've forgiven him?"   
"Um—I haven't been counting. Don't tell me you have."   
"I have, and out of respect for your pride, I won't mention the number. Lily, this is ridiculous. Why on earth are you still his friend?"   
"I—I don't know." Lily looked down at her robes. "I just can't really stay mad at him for long."   
"You need to. Guys like him use girls like you, and he's done a pretty thorough job so far. This needs to stop."   
Lily bit her lip for a minute, then nodded her head shortly.   
"All right. I'll try to stop."   
"Try? Hon, you're going to do."   
"All right then. I'll stop."   
"Atta girl. All right then, that lecture's over. Go back in there and have fun being mean."   
They both smiled at each other wickedly as they left the classroom.  
As they went down to breakfast, Eva broke the comfortable silence.   
"Lily, you do know that I wasn't trying to be mean to James back there, don't you? I just want you to be, well, you know, I just don't want you to get hurt again. You do understand, don't you?"   
Lily stared. "Of course I understand! I just realized when you were talking to me back there what an idiot I was being. I'm far too easy on him and I don't plan to do that any more in future."   
"Well, just what do you plan to do?"   
"Nothing, really. I'm not going to be mean to him, but I don't plan to be friendly. That good?"   
"Sounds safe—but, Lily, I don't want to be responsible if you two develop another fight."   
"You're not responsible; I am, and I'll sign a contract to that effect if I have to."   
"Don't bother. We're still friends?"   
"We never haven't been."   
"True."   
With that, both of them slipped into their seats and dug into pancakes with maple syrup.   
James was a bit puzzled, true, when Lily greeted him with her former coolness, but he was relieved when Serena walked in and didn't find him talking to Lily. Lily noted this out of the corner of a narrowed eye, and thought to herself that Eva was right; he was an inconstant fool.   
Their classes passed easily, and Lily won twenty points for Gryffindor when she described the effects of the Catnip Bush on people. By the end of Charms, the last period for that day, there was a notice posted in the Great Hall, which several people were gathered around.   
  
_SPECIAL COURSE OFFERED   
  
For third years and above, there will be the choice of Anatomy of Magical Creatures offered, beginning next year. This course will only be offered for four years, as the teacher shall be leaving us at the end of that time period. If you wish to sign up for this course, please see your Head of House. The deadline is the Friday before exams. _

_Sincerely,  
  
__Professor M. McGonagall, Head of Gryffindor House  
  
Lily's eyes opened wide. They dilated along with her pupils and started to sparkle. Eva noticed that look.   
"You're signing up?"   
"What do you take me for? Of course!"   
"You do know you're going to be dissecting creatures, don't you?"   
"Precisely my reason for signing up."   
"All right." Privately, Eva thought; anything to get her mind off of James.   
Lily never wasted a moment. She immediately went to the Transfiguration room and caught Professor McGonagall as she was tidying up papers on her desk. Fifteen minutes later, Lily walked out of the room with an extremely satisfied smile on her face.   
Exams came all to quickly, but this year Lily only put three days of moderate studying into her schedule. When they got their marks back, Eva was ready to hit Lily, along with the rest of the third years, when they found out that Lily had gotten the highest marks in their year. Lily herself was a bit miffed to find that her average was only two points higher than James', but she nevertheless was excited enough to participate fully in the large party James and Sirius threw for the Gryffindors as an end-of-exams celebration. She could tell they had been to Hogsmeade by the large amounts of butterbeer and Honeydukes candy, but she kept her mouth shut.   
It was boiling inside the castle, so everyone was delighted when the Hogwarts Express came to transport the students to King's Cross. Quickly, the train was packed and the engine heading south, bearing in its vitals a fair amount of noisy explosions and sparks issuing from Exploding Snap games. Everyone was taking advantage of the few hours they had before they would have to stop using magic, and the air was filled with laughter and bangs. Lily had joined in, though in Serverus' compartment. He had just asked her something she was considering seriously, and she had a mischievous spark in her eyes._

"Really?"   
"Yeah; Lucius and I wanted to do that last year, but then they went over to someone else's place and the effect would have been ruined. This year works, though."   
"There's only one problem there."   
"What?"   
"Do you have a sister or female cousin?"   
"Er—no, why?"   
"Can't go. My dad'd throw a fit."   
"Oh, come on, we'll work around that. Say yes, please!"   
"Er—I'm not sure. It would be a nice bit of excitement…I don't know." She shook her head. "I'm not sure."   
"Well, in case you say yes, Lucius' mansion can hold seventy guests."   
"Really? That many guest rooms? His ancestors must have liked throwing parties…Serverus, I'd love to, but there's the whole parent consent thing."   
He waved that off. "Don't worry. I'll handle that. You'll do it?"   
"Have I ever shirked from something that promises excitement or danger?"   
"No, and sometimes I wish you would; you'll get killed if you keep that up."   
"To die would be an awfully great adventure."   
"Peter Pan."   
"Exactly."   
She smiled and opened her trunk, pulling out a set of Gobstones. Serverus' eyes lit up and he scooted some of his things on the floor over, giving them about a square yard of space to play on.   
The train stopped before Lily was aware that two hours had passed, and they climbed onto the noisy platform. Just before she left to go through the barrier, Serverus slipped a note into her hand, with a whispered, "Read it when you're alone."  
No one was at the Muggle station to meet her when the train pulled up and Lily walked through the barrier, and they had no Muggle money so they couldn't use a phone. Serverus waited around with her for about a half hour, then persuaded Lily to come to his place temporarily.   
"It's only for about an hour, till my parents can figure out what's wrong here. And it can't hurt anyone."   
Lily was indecisive. "I'm not sure. What if they arrive just as we leave?"   
"You can say that till Doomsday comes. And, besides, do you really want to stay out here with an owl, a Hogwarts trunk, and all kinds of that stuff? The Muggle please-men'd arrest you for insanity."   
Lily half-smiled. "Policemen. All right. But are you sure your parents'd be all right with my coming over?"   
He shrugged. "It's not exactly my parents; more like Lucius'. But it's almost the same thing. They're still inside the barrier. Coming?"   
Lily sighed and turned her trolley towards the barrier. "All right. But if my parents murder me for this, you're paying the medical bills."   
"What's the point? You'd be dead already. And remember, the only thing to do with someone who's all dead is to go through her clothes for loose change."   
"You start going through my clothes, Serverus Snape, and you'll wish you'd never seen me."   
"All right. Come on--Lucius' waiting up there."   
They wheeled their trolleys onto Platform nine and three-quarters to meet their friends' parents.   
"Lily!"   
He was speaking in a whisper.   
"What?"   
"Voice down! Don't, by any means, tell his parents that you're Muggle-born!"   
"Why not?"   
"Just don't!"  
Walking over to Lucius' family, Lily analyzed them silently.   
"Mr Malfoy--tall, same white-blond hair as his son...looks nice enough, not a person I'd want to cross." She smiled as she shook his outstretched hand.   
"So this is Lucius' little friend? We've heard a lot about you. And you're welcome to stay with us as long as you want."   
Lucius took her arm. "Lily, this is my mother." He turned her towards a beautiful lady, with long, ash-blonde hair, and pink cheeks that were not reflected on either her husband's or son's faces. She also smiled welcomingly.   
"Lily? Welcome, dear. Your parents didn't turn up? Oh, dear...well, we'll have to contact them as best we can...well, until we do, dear, you'll be staying with us." She gave Lily an extra squeeze, smiled again, and took her husband's arm.   
"Dear, I need to get home. Dahlia's hosting her party tonight and I promised to help with the decorations. We'll leave now." Mildly bossy, she pulled the group, which included Severus, away towards the barrier.  
They got home quickly, using Floo powder at a nearby restaurant. When Lily found herself in the entrance hall of the Malfoy's mansion, she didn't know quite what to say.   
The beautiful, grand stone walls were covered with dark green silk drapes and family portraits framed in ebony notched with silver. The winding stairways that led up to other rooms were ebony also; silver vines entwined the hansdomely carved banisters. The carpet was dark green velvet, and the candelabras hanging from the ceiling, the walls, and placed on the sideboards were silver snakes with emeralds placed as eyes. James would have been shocked to see this place and would have left. Lily felt right at home.   
Lucius took her arm.   
"C'mon. I'm showing you your room. This way." He led her up the right-hand curving stairway and stopped at the second landing.   
This landing opened into a large hallway, with green velvet covering the floor and different designs notched in silver on the doors, framing the sides. Three doors away from the large window at the end of the hall, Lucius stopped and handed Lily her trunk. He pulled a door to his left open and pulled the trunk inside.   
"This is your room...I'd say better no unpack till we're sure that you're gonna be staying here, but you can go ahead and take off the sweater." He left and closed the door quietly, leaving Lily to stare about her new residence.

It somehow reminded her of her Hogwarts dormitory; circular, with a four-poster across from the door and an large window. It was much more grand than anything at Hogwarts, though, much more greener and more silver; much darker than the school had been. Lily's eyes sparkled mischievously.  
Lily grinned widely as she saw the beautiful view from the window; several handsome hedges shaped to form a sort of maze in snake-form. The lawns were darker than was usual, and they were bordered by a neatly kept sort of forest; not as dark or as dangerous as the Forbidden one at Hogwarts, but nevertheless a forest. Lily bit her bottom lip in excitement, closed the large window she had been staring out of, and threw open her trunk.   
Sick and tired of the Hogwarts robes, she searched for something fitting for the warm but not hot atmosphere of the mansion. Wrinkling her nose, she found that the only things the house-elves had washed were the bluejeans and green shirt Eva had made her put on over the Easter holidays. Shaking her head and fumbling around for some darker, clean things, she finally had to resort to those clothes. Just as she was tying her hair back in a braid, Severus knocked at the door.   
"Lily?"   
"Hum? That is–who is it?"   
Severus pushed the door open. "It's me. You all right?"   
"Sure–why shouldn't I be?"   
"No reason." He shut the door and moved into the room, sitting next to the gangly form on the bed. "Lily?"   
"Mmm?" She had given up on the braid and was trying a braided bun, and for the first time in over a year, she was fussing with hairpins. Right now they were in her mouth, and her arms were aching from being held up over her head for so long.   
"Remember what I told you at King's Cross?"   
"Mmmph ummph. Thwat I phooldn't pell Wucius' pawents I'm a Wuggle."   
"That you what?"   
Lily removed the pins from her mouth. "That I shouldn't tell Lucius' parent's I'm a Muggle. Or Muggle-born, whatever. I was going to ask you about that, anyway. Why not?"   
Severus shrugged, but it wasn't an "I don't care" shrug; more of a nervous twitch. "They–Lily, they don't especially like Muggles."   
"I'm a witch."   
"I know, but–well, I didn't especially like them either. To tell ya the truth, you're the only one I like."   
"Is that supposed to be a compliment?"  
"Kinda sorta maybe I don't know. But I'd do all I can to keep them from finding out. See–well, one of their friends had a Muggle father, and the dad left his mom and kid when he found out that the mom was a witch. And them the mom died, and the kid grew up in an orphanage, and–well, the people there were terrible to him. So people like that are partly what makes Lucius' parents hate Muggles."   
"Partly?"   
"Well–yeah, they think Muggles are so inferior to them…and in a roundabout way they are–refusing to believe in anything they can't see–oh well. Promise you won't tell his parents?"   
Lily had something else on her mind. "Severus?"   
"Huh?"   
"What was that orphan's name?"   
"Oh–I'm not sure–see, they've been out of touch for a long time–they say he went to Albania or something to live with his mum's folks."   
"I see." Lily fingered a loose strand of hair. "And what if Tom finds out I'm Muggle-born?"   
She didn't say this aloud, but she thought it so loudly she wondered that Severus couldn't hear the echoes inside her head.  
The evening quickly turned chilly, and, thanking and re-thanking Severus for the cloak he'd given her, Lily pulled it out of her trunk and spent a comfortable evening in the library, which was twice as large as the one at Hogwarts, twice as comfortable, and about twenty-six times more beautiful. The bookshelves, thousands upon thousands, weren't all ebony, but they were painted a beautiful midnight black with green velvet cushions on the shelves so that the old books that the Malfoy family owned wouldn't get banged up by the wooden shelf-edges.   
The fire was in a fireplace seven feet wide and about six feet high; an elaborately carved mantlepiece of ebony splashed with silver and emeralds hung over it, supporting two large but delicate candelabras. The large couch was dark green with a silvery shine and carved legs. Fifteen feet long, it provided a comfortable place for about seven people to sprawl on. The rug in front of the fireplace, almost thirty feet square, was the house's traditional silver and green, with a pattern of serpents woven into the shimmering threads. Four other armchairs, made in the same fashion as the sofa, surrounded the average-sized table in the center and made a quaint little circle. And around the chairs the walls of the book-cases loomed high, lit at intervals of about five feet by a candelabra, on a stand about four feet in the air. It was a sort of welcoming atmosphere to Lily, but she knew Petunia would run screaming out of the mansion at the sight of all the 'scary snakies and the darkie places'.   
The next morning, Mr. Malfoy got in touch with the Ministry of Magic and asked them to contact Lily's family for them, since repeated efforts of theirs had been fruitless. And around five, an answer came by owl, addressed to Lily.  
  
_Dear Miss Evans,   
  
We have located your parents and are pleased to enclose a letter from them. You have their permission to stay at Mr. Malfoy's for the rest of the summer.   
  
The enclosure read:   
  
__Lily, dear,   
  
I know how worried you must have been when we didn't show up to pick you up. Truth is, it went straight clean out of my head. I might as well tell you this now–your mother's sick.  Not headache-sick, but double pneumonia sick. On top of that, she was visiting someone who had another guest: a lady with a daughter with typhoid and we don't know if she has that, too. Petunia's out of the house, and you're doing the same until your mother gets well. I love you, doll, and you've got free license to spend what ever you want in Diagon Alley or anywhere else. I'm enclosing the key to your vault.   
I wish I could say all I want to, but it would scare you right out of your senses. Your mother is. Out of her senses, I mean. The whole delirious thing. Well–all I want to say is be good and don't come home on pain of death. Seriously.   
__I love you, and your mother would send her love if she knew I was writing to you,   
Dad  
  
Lily looked up from her letter, released her freely bleeding lip, and nodded slowly. Severus looked over, curiously.   
"Lily, what is it?"   
She handed him the letter wordlessly, not even bothering to wipe the trickle of blood away from her chin. Severus skimmed through it, reached into the bottom of the envelope, took out the small golden key, and turned to Lily.   
"Burn?"   
Lily, eyes strained and almost all white, nodded her head in small jerks. Severus pushed the letters and envelope into the fire and pulled out a tissue, wiping her face off. She didn't move, and he put an arm around the cold marble statue for comfort, but the only thing about her that moved when he did so was the long red hair that settled against the back of the couch.   
A door behind them creaked, but neither of them looked up till Lucius' voice came from directly behind them.   
"Severus, you nuts?"   
Severus jumped up, pulling his arm away.   
"Lucius, long story. Not now, though."   
Lucius frowned. "All right, then, fine, if you don't want to tell me. But our parents're taking us out to eat at that Japanese restaurant in Fraeden Square. You two want to get ready?"   
Severus leaned down to Lily and gently shook her shoulders. She snapped out of her trance with a start.   
"Lily?"   
She spoke in a dry, dead, hardened voice. "What?"   
"You need to eat something. Come on; we're going out with Lucius' parents."   
Like a baby, Lily allowed herself to be lifted and led out of the library.  
He led her to her room, opened a closet, and pulled out a dark dress, rather formal, which he laid across knees.   
"Lily, c'mon. You'll be all right. She isn't dead, is she? Well then. It'll be all right. Trust me." Hesitating a bit, he leaned over and gave her a quick hug, then quickly left the room.   
Lily heard the door close, and, as if in a dream, she stood up and changed into the long dress. Black, it went up to her throat and down to her feet, trailing a bit. It reached down to her wrists, with bits of black lace scattered about her neck, wrists, and hem. Her hair had been slowly turning darker over the last year, and it was no longer a rusty orange, but a reddish-orange, and, combed and scattered about her shoulders, it would have made her beautiful. Except for one thing.   
No woman, ever, had an expression on her face like Lily did then. In the space of fifteen minutes, the life had gone out of her face and she was left with a colorless, white face. Litharelen had a moonshine tinge to her skin, but Lily's face could have been shaded with Professor McGonagall's board chalk. The skin about her cheeks was drawn, and shadows under her eyes were prominent. Almost unnaturally, her eyebrows cut vivid lines in her forehead, and her lips were pale and cracked, bleeding in several places. The usually alive, deep, forest green mirrors that served her as eyes were now dead, almost black; the green tinge had vanished almost completely. Her eyes were, as usual, rimmed with the bristly dark lashes with a tilt to them at the ends, but, now more than ever contrasting so sharply with the red of her hair, they didn't accent her eyes; they imprisoned them behind bars.  
She noticed vaguely that the dress she was wearing was terribly like a mourning dress, but she pushed that fact out of her mind, and went downstairs, sitting down across from where Severus and Lucius were standing, as far away from any sort of light as possible.   
The boys had noticed her as she came down, but they were a bit too amazed to move. The black dress draped about her, giving her the look of a Greek statue, and her red locks draped around her, forming the only jewelry she needed. But, pretty as she could have been, she was the perfect image of pain, with her knuckles white as she clenched the folds of her dress in one hand and the paleness of her face. Almost ghostly, she half-impressed, half frightened the two boys as they stood next to the banister. Severus had just finished telling Lucius what happened, and both of them moved over quickly.   
"Lily?"   
"Ssht. She's not all right–not yet. Lily, anything we can do for you–"   
She spoke as if from a dead person's throat, but politely. "No, thank you. I'm quite all right." She turned away, against the wall.   
"You're not all right. Don't try that. But, Lily, as long as you need anyone, we're here for you."   
Unwillingly, Severus gave a small gasp as Lily turned her face towards him. The bones of her skull were stretching through her cheeks, and she seemed several inches away from death. He could see the hollows in the bone where her eyes were and the bone that formed her jaw. But a rustling made him turn away.   
"Severus? Lucius? Lily? We're ready. Are you coming?"   
Severus lifted Lily to her feet and helped her towards Lucius' mother, clothed in a spring-blue, off-the-shoulder gown with a long dark blue cloak around her shoulders. Fair hair dressed up off of her shoulders and accented with a silver tiara, she appeared the very picture of all that was perfect. But she quickly took in Lily's state, recognized the mouthings "Her mother" from Lucius, and immediately sank to her knees and gathered the small twelve-year-old in a large hug. Lily felt something inside of her snap, and, though she didn't start to cry, she wrapped her arms around the comforting person that seemed to understand everything.___


	23. Death and Flashbacks One last hope

Thanks to all that reviewed.  BTW, for the last 22 chapters and all that lie ahead, the good old disclaimer comes in—the one that every single reader knows by heart and says that the characters created by J.K. Rowling are hers, yah-dee-dah, but the plot is mine, and trust me, I will find out where you live if you steal it…

On a happier note, here's some more of the story.  Thanks all 12 people that reviewed!

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When they arrived at the restaurant, even in her detached state, Lily couldn't help but wonder at the beautiful surroundings. The ceiling was covered with black velvet and dotted everywhere with stars, and the carpet was a thick scarlet. The entrance portals were guarded by two stone dragons, and the walls at either side of the gold-enscribed door were huge fish tanks, with coral reefs and water plants and tropical fish swimming around. The waitress that greeted them was dressed in an immaculate kimono, scarlet, embroidered all over with gold thread. Her hair was gathered away from her face and pulled back in a sort of rope-like twist, and through it she had put black chopsticks with gold lettering on them. And the table she led them to, after bowing low, was almost breathtaking.   
If Lily hadn't seen the Malfoy's mansion and Eva's house beforehand, she would have been breathless. It was an enclosed booth; the walls were draped with painted silk scrolls and red silk curtains–the ceiling was the same black with stars. The table was covered with a creamy white cloth placed over a scarlet one, and the scarlet showed through. The plates on the table were fine china with blue paintings done by hand, and the chopsticks lying next to every place were of the same china with blue characters on it. The cup for tea was of the same eggshell-like china, as was the beautiful steaming teapot in the center. Rather nervous, and praying she wouldn't break anything, Lily took her place between the two boys. They helped her order, and once the waitress had brought hot, but not too hot soup and given each person a small bowl, they started to talk. Mrs. Malfoy was smiling slightly.   
"So, Lily, you like this place?"   
"Do I like this place? It's–it's–I don't know what to say. It's amazing!"   
She nodded. "It's one of the most expensive places in the Alley maze. And you can obviously see why!"   
"Of course I can–wait–the Alley maze?"   
Mrs. Malfoy frowned slightly. "Well, Diagon Alley, Knockturn Alley, Fraeden Square, Madraiden Place, Firestream Lane…well, you know. At least, you should."   
"Oh, that." Lily nodded quickly and swallowed the rest of her soup. "Of course I know about them. It's just–it's just that my family calls them the Alley Divisions." Quickly shooting a questioning and half-frightened glance at Severus and Lucius to see if her cover had gone over well, she received two relieved approbations. She breathed more normally and picked up her chopsticks for the well-seasoned steamed rice.  
They left the restaurant an hour and a half later, and Lily had been terribly thankful when she saw the bill and knew that Mr. Malfoy was paying for her. Fifty Galleons per person! Yeah, it was the most expensive restaurant around here!   
When they got back home, Lily quickly changed into her black nightgown and slipped between the comforters. Someone had graciously slipped a hot-water bottle between the blankets, so she warmed up quickly after the chilly night air. Then her thoughts drifted back to her mother. Her first memory of her…they were sitting on a balcony, and her mother was doing her hair. She had seen one of her friends down in the street and had jumped up, making her mother yank her hair.   
The day she got her letter for Hogwarts.   
Her last birthday and the cake her mother baked.   
The smiles on her mother's face when Lily stepped off of the train.   
Her mother, sitting in an armchair, crocheting a tiny sweater for that baby that never came.   
Buying her fencing equipment. Taking her to practice. Watching Gone with the Wind and drinking hot cocoa with a touch of hazelnut. Reading Agatha Christie books and eating pretzels. Picking wildflowers in the field just beyond that building site near their house. Riding the horses that were at the nearby college's equitation stables. Shopping for dishes after Lily had broken the old set. Doing…oh, hundreds of things, hundreds of things Lily seriously doubted she would ever do again. She fell asleep, and if anyone had come in, they would have been crying at the pained expression her face held even in her sleep.  
The next morning, Severus walked into the room first. He drew aside the curtains at the window and then at the four-poster, knowing that if she were left alone she'd torture herself with thoughts of her mother.   
"Lily! Wake up!"   
She shot straight up in bed. "Huh? What? Oh, it's you. Hi." She flopped back onto her pillow.   
"Come on! We're going to Diagon Alley today. Fortescue's got some new ice cream in. Wonderful day outside. Practically seventy degrees already, and it isn't ten yet. Come on, outta bed!" He pulled the covers off of her, and, expecting to shiver, she pulled her nightgown over her feet.   
"Wh–Whoa! It really is seventy degrees outside!" She pulled the nightgown off of her arms, where it clung to her skin damply.   
"'Course it is. You up for ice cream?"   
Lily shrugged. "Sure, whatever. Go away."   
"'Scuse you?"   
"If you want me to go for ice cream, you'd better expect me to go there dressed. And I'm not changing in front of you. Go away."   
"Oh, come on, why not? I think Lucius has an old ducky bathrobe you can wear–"   
"SEVERUS YOU WERE TO KEEP SHUT ABOUT THAT BATHROBE!"   
"I told you he did. Whatcha gonna wear?"   
"Oh…" Lily shrugged and slipped off of the mattress. "Anything that's clean."   
"Have it your way. You might want to wear something that's cool, though, because it's gonna be hot as–as–"   
"As what?"   
"As your temper. Come on. I'm leaving, you get dressed." He suited the action to the word and left her to do the same.  
She did so, quickly, in a black shirt; short-sleeved, and long dark pants. Lily wasn't feeling up to dressing brightly after she had received the news about her mother, so she picked out her darkest things, took off every bit of jewelry, and let her hair hang the way it had the other night. When she inspected her face in the mirror, it was still white and drawn, and her cheekbones were more prominent than ever. She hadn't cried yet, thinking with an absurd self-made superstition that if she did, her mother would die. Keeping back her tears took no effort at all, surprisingly, and, after turning away from the mirror abruptly, she took her purse out of her trunk and walked downstairs.

Severus and Lucius were waiting for her there. Thankfully, they showed no sign of surprise at the way she looked, which was, to say the least, terrible. Severus simply took her arm, which was shaking slightly, and escorted her to the great fire to the left of the stairways. He took a pinch of green powder from a silver basin, threw it into the roaring flames, which turned a sickly green, and stepped inside, shouting, "Diagon Alley!" and pulling Lily along with him.   
"Close your eyes!" was the last thing Lily heard before they were caught in a whirlwind of soot, and when she opened them, the world had stopped spinning and she was standing inside the fireplace of a room she had seen once before; the main room of the Leaky Cauldron, and she caught glimpses of faces she knew all too well but was too strained to recognize.  
Sirius, James, Peter, and Remus were sitting at a table, counting money and comparing purchases. Their eyes, along with Miranda's, Ashley's, and John's, who were sitting nearby, widened in a sort of horror when they saw Lily and Severus materialize, and Lily hanging onto his arm with a dead white face and for dear life.   
James jumped up first. "Lily, are you mad! What're you doing with him?"   
His voice reached her faintly, and she turned the saddest eyes he had ever seen on him. The hurt in her expression was as hard to miss as the fact that the universe existed, and it froze James in the stance he was in, half out of his chair.   
The skin on her face was so thin and taut, it seemed that if one touched it with a knife, it would snap away in different directions. Her jaw was set, and those eyes–those eyes. They had summoned all of the pain anyone on the world had ever felt, emotional and physical, and stored them inside those two small orbs. He had never seen a sight like that before, and it was only when Severus steered her out of the back door and had shut it that he sprang to life.   
"What–what was wrong with her? Sirius, you saw–you saw her! What's he doing to her?"   
Sirius had drawn inside himself, and his voice came out thickly. "I–don't–know–"   
"Well, if it's Snape that's making her--" He jumped up and Sirius had to catch him, and even then he needed Remus' assistance.   
"James–it's not Snape. No kid could make her feel that way–I don't think–I don't think you want to interfere."   
James was still straining, but at those words he turned around and faced Sirius squarely. "What do you mean?"   
"I wish I knew. I wish I knew."  
The next time James saw Lily, she was absent-mindedly drinking a cup of strong coffee, and the circles under her eyes were starting to grow more lavender, and had addend wrinkles. He didn't stop, but went right on inside the Quidditch store. Severus noticed him, even if Lily didn't.   
"Lily?"   
She didn't move, but Severus knew she had heard him.   
"Lily, I don't know what it is about him. He keeps showing up wherever you are–keeps attacking me or trying to whenever I'm with you–" His voice trailed off.   
"I know. I've wondered about that, too." Her voice was so drawn-out that every word was spoken after an interval of five seconds.   
That evening, she undressed and got into her nightgown, remembering the last time she'd seen James. He was coming out of a shop she was going into, and he just stared at her. A blank stare; nothing else. After they had stopped up the doorway for about thirty seconds, someone roughly pushed Lily inside, and she fell, skinning her palms on the carpet. James had made a move to go inside after her, but the crowd had forced him back onto the street.   
Opening the trunk to get her brush out, Lily came across the tiny casket that held the elf-nymph necklace. She hesitated a bit, but then pulled it out and knocked it against the wall, clutching the chain tightly in her fist.   
Lily landed softly in a large wave, and, spitting out mouthfuls of the water, she climbed onto dry land.   
It was night, and the stars twinkled in the heavens like the glimmers on the water's surface. Shivering slightly, she jumped as a form jumped out from behind a rock.  
"Lily?"   
"Tom?"   
"Yeah, it's me. We've been waiting for you–"   
"What for?"   
"Long story. I need your help."   
Lily was a bit stunned. "My help? I'm only thirteen–what–?"   
"I'll explain. Come." He took her hand and led her behind the rocky cave that had sheltered him. They sat down on two raised rocks, and Tom pulled out a book, flipping to a page somewhere in the middle.   
"See this?" He handed the book to her, pointing to the right-hand page.   
"Traummacht Potion. What about it?"   
"I found this book of my mother's, and she spelled it so it can only be opened by doing this spell and drenching the book in this potion. Weird, I know, but–"   
"But what?"   
"But I don't have all the ingredients."   
She was a bit confused. "Where do I come in?"   
"I'd like to ask you if you can get them for me."   
"What–But Hogwarts' closed over the summer. You'll have to wait."   
"I can't. The book stays permanently shut if I don't open it within a month of finding the book. It's been two weeks."   
"So–so what do you want me to do?"   
He looked at her. "You don't suppose you've already guessed? I need you–you're small, you're young, and no one would arrest you for it."   
Lily's smile twinkled. "When do I start?"  
She returned to the Malfoy's a few minutes later, with a few hurried instructions. The first thing that caught her eye when she landed on the bed was an owl, large and tawny, with a letter clamped in its beak. With shaking hands, she tore the envelope open and pulled on of two sheets of parchment out.

_Dear Miss Evans,   
  
We regret to inform you that you mother has passed away. We offer our sincerest sympathies to you and your family. If you have any requests or questions, please write to the Ministry of Magic, Department 226.   
  
Peter Bartlett, Head of Department 226. _  
  
Lily was already sitting, and that was a good thing, for her knees would have buckled. As it was, her eyes simply widened, her lips grew a shocked almost transparent, as she was pressing them together so hard, and her complexion paled even more, if that was at all possible, and the circles around her eyes quickly deepened to a dark purple. She shed no tear; she simply reached inside the envelope and pulled the other sheet out with badly shaking hands.   
_  
Lily, dear,   
  
The Ministry wrote to you to tell you–but I want you to know something. Your mother passed away quietly; she was in no pain and she was conscious at the end. Love, her last words were, "I love you, Lil dear." I can't write much anymore–except that her funeral's going to be three weeks from now. She already bought your birthday present–I'll send it along with some of the things she wanted you to have. I can't write anymore–only please don't come home immediately. I need to be alone for a bit.   
  
Love, Dad. _  
  
Lily dropped back onto the bed. She didn't move for the rest of the night, and she didn't shed a single tear. But when Severus came in next morning at around nine, he ran for Mrs. Malfoy. From his jumbled message she could only understand a few words–"Lily–dead–terrible–come see!", but she nevertheless raced to Lily's room and stopped short when she saw the limp figure on the bed.

**_*There is something missing here—the summarization of it is that Mrs. Malfoy wakes Lily up and everyone leaves just as an owl swoops through the window with the things from her mother.  Lily has a few flashbacks as she lifts through the things, which include two golden candlesticks and a golden hairpiece one can insert a dagger into; kinda like a sheath.  The other things are mentioned here*_**

  
Lightfooted, smiling, and laughing, Mrs. Evans was dressed in a medieval noble dress Lily had dragged down from the attic. She was inserting the poniard into her concealing sheath–then picked up the old script of The Three Musketeers. Striking a ferocious pose, she swerved towards Lily, pulling out the dagger.   
"Ah, wretch! You have basely insulted me–and more, you have my secret! You shall die!" Running wildly towards Lily, who ran out of the way in pretended fear, she caught her small six-year-old around the waist and swung her high into the air, both of them laughing as their red hair got entangled with the other's.   
The next thing Lily pulled out was a collection of books. The complete Agatha Christie–both cloth-bound Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Books, two series of Robin Hood adventures, Robinson Crusoe, the complete Shakespeare, marked at intervals with the parts she had played. Lily ran her fingers over the spine of the books, eyes closed, the closest to crying she had been since she got the first letter from the Ministry of Magic and her father. Warmth flooded her from the gilded, deerskin, leather, and cloth covers of the books her mother had most loved.   
The lumpy package was one Lily smiled to see. They were her mother's old tap shoes–she had worn them in several performances of musicals, and Lily had never tired of putting them on and tapping around the house in them when she had been younger. Even though they were close to fifteen years old, they only had a few real scratches, and those could be easily fixed with shoe polish. Lily touched the small straps, smiling to think of the small feet her mother had had.   
There was only one thing left; a dark blue box wrapped with pale cream ribbon. A note slipped in the bindings said, in her mother's handwriting, Happy birthday, dear! Lily paused, then, gently, removed the ribbon and top of the box.  
Reaching inside, she touched something hard. Pulling the contents out, she discovered something she'd seen in a Muggle store and always wished for, but it had been too expensive…   
A case of drawing pencils, along with drawing paper, was enclosed. A sharpener and eraser accompanied it; also a pack of paints and brushes. There was a book, too–Faeries–one with beautiful and exotic drawings of tiny fairies. Lily smiled as she thought of the pictures open to her now that she had a few models…   
There was something else. Her mother had sent her a few clothes–Lily, dear, I just wanted to get these for you. I know you might not want them, but I'm making the gesture anyway. There were several shirts: one emerald green with long sleeves and sparkling earrings to match, another a deep burgundy, also long-sleeved, with deep garnet earrings set in gold, and a short-sleeved blue shirt with a sapphire necklace. She had also put a pair of black jazz pants into the pile, and two pairs of blue jeans, which, Lily was touched to discover, fit her perfectly.   
She squeezed her eyes shut, then stood up. She quickly slid into the black jazz pants and the burgundy shirt, putting on the earrings and a gold chain with a garnet pendant that she had loved when she was younger. Slipping her feet into the tap shoes and brushing her hair till it shone in the glimmering light, she picked up Macbeth and went downstairs to the library.  
As she sat in the large armchair, curled up with what seemed like her mother's hair surrounding her; it was so long, and whispering out loud the parts of Macbeth and seeming to hear a dramatic voice, the voice of her mother, speak the role of Macbeth's wife, she felt strangely comforted. She felt as if her mother was in the room with her, holding her in her arms. And so immersed was she in the past and the complete peacefulness of that moment that she almost leaped out of the chair in shock and astonishment when someone lightly touched her shoulder.  
"Severus! You scared me half to death!"   
He didn't say anything; he was merely looking at her.   
"What? Did I just sprout a mulitcolored mole out of my head?"   
He shook himself. "No–it's not–Lily, your mother just died, and you're walking around in red and gold?"   
Lily had forgotten, for the moment, that her mother would no longer be there to welcome her home, and she turned away, to the fire.

"Severus–it's not–not–Mother sent these to me. She meant to give them as a birthday present…but it was too late–" Lily turned back towards Severus, and he was sorry he had ever mentioned her mother. The skull-like appearance her face had had was lost when he had come into the library, and now it was back, full force, and twice as pained.   
He moved over to her and took her by the shoulders. "Lily, cry if you want to. We know how much you loved her…go ahead, cry."  
A small vision passed in front of Lily's eyes. It was that train trip home during the Easter holidays, and James was in the carriage with her.   
"Please don't cry–never mind. Cry if you want to–it's the holding back of tears that makes people so terribly hard. Cry if you want to."   
Lily backed away, astonishment in her eyes. Severus looked a bit hurt.   
"What? Did I do something terrible?"   
She frowned. "No–no–no–" Her voice broke. "Please go away," she whispered in a rather croaking sound. Severus' face didn't lose its hurt, but he nevertheless complied and left Lily by herself.   
She meant to go back to the armchair and resume her reading, but her gaze was intercepted by the sight of parchment, a lit candle, several quills, and ink. Moving slowly, she stepped towards the small table and picked up a quill.   
  
_Eva,   
  
Mother died two days ago. I don't feel up to telling people why I'm walking around like a moving corpse, so please do that for me. And I'm probably not going to be coming the first few weeks of school; this is just to explain why. If you want to send me an owl, I'll be at Lucius' place. Lucius Malfoy, that is. I don't want to write anymore, but I thought I should pen this bit. Please don't write back giving me your sincerest sympathies; I feel as if I just might totally break down if I saw that written. I also want you to come to her funeral: three weeks from now. I'll tell you once I have the exact date and time and place.   
–Lily _  
  
Folding the letter up, Lily stuck it inside an envelope, dropped a bit of cream-colored wax on the flap and pressed her small golden ring into it. Picking up Macbeth, she went upstairs to get Alisande to deliver her letter.   
Watching her owl fly away over the treetops, she felt even more saddened, as if writing that her mother was dead had made it even more of a reality.   
That night, she returned to the Alendoren Cove.  
"Tom, I don't know if I can do this."   
"What–why not?"   
"My mother just died. I can't–I can't–"   
He bit his lip, then fumbled through pages and pages of notes, finally stopping at one long roll of parchment.   
"Lily, this is part of what's in the book. Read it."   
A bit bewildered, Lily took the sheet and read the line at which Tom's finger pointed.   
"Vomtodauferstanden spell. But what–"   
"Read the explanation."   
She complied, in a shaking voice, for she had comprehended the meaning of the swirly, curlicued title. "Bringt Eure Verlorenen wieder auf die Erde. Mit nur einem Buch und nur sieben Zutaten werden Eure sehnlichsten Wünshe wieder wahr. Brings your lost ones back to the Earth. With only one book and only seven ingredients will your greatest wishes become true. Tom–" She broke off with a flaming desire in her eyes. "Tom–really?"   
He nodded. "Really. That's one of the reasons I'm so worried to get that book open–that's the book it's talking about. I want my mother–you want yours–don't you see?"   
Lily nodded with a set face. "I see. List, please."   
He handed her a short bit of parchment with some names written on it. "You're positive you want to do this?"   
Lily turned to him. "Tom, I want my mother back more than anything else in the world. You know that. And I'll do anything to get her back, just as–just as I believe you would. Goodbye." She left the cave and went around to the other side of it, and there struck the elf-nymph necklace on the boulders. Spinning through a whirlwind of blackness, she landed on her bed at the Malfoys. It was still dark outside, and Lily blessed her stars for that. Quickly slipping off the tap shoes, all the jewelry except the elf-nymph necklace, and the burgundy turtleneck, she donned soft, almost slipper-like black velvet shoes with cloth soles that were in the closet, a black turtleneck with dark gloves, and the cloak Severus had given her. Pulling the cloak's hood over her head and tying it with the wide black ribbons, she bound a small bag about her waist and opened the window, letting in warm night air.  
She had been walking around outside earlier that day, with Severus and Lucius, and she had made an especial note of how the walls were formed and which windows were placed where. Stepping deftly from one piece of carved stone to another, she managed to get down to the lawn without slipping once. A small shadow flitted across the lawns, and Lily was drifting nimbly between the trees of the dark forest.   
On the other side, she came out on the edge of a meadow, and beyond the meadow, she could see the outlines of buildings, their backs to her, black against an even blacker sky.   
Dashing across the meadow, silently, she reached the stone constructions and smiled grimly as she slipped through a side alley and found herself pressed against the walls of Knockturn Alley.   
Lily could see that this place wasn't as well kept as Diagon Alley or Firestream Lane; hags were snoozing all around her, one with a pitcher covered with a slimy sort of liquid, another wrapped in a cloak that had once been animal fur, but the fur was falling out in patches and only left the greasy skin behind. Somewhere down the street, a few people were dancing around a fire and shooting red and blue sparks into the air, but Lily shrugged them off, putting all of her attention into the reading of the signs above the stores.   
"Bromin's Antiques–no–Higginson and Dowell–nope…what's that?" Her eyes glistened with a wild fever as she spotted a small store, almost hidden in the gloom. "Hiscock's Potions!" Her lips curved up as she deftly wound her way around the sleeping figures and trash cans in the alley. The only noise she had made since she had left the house was when she had mumbled the names of the stores to herself, and now, just as silently, she pulled a small chisel out of the bag she'd tied to her waist in the dormitory and started to work on the faulty lock on the door. She had learned how to pick locks one afternoon when she was six and bored, so this was child's play for her.   
After only about five seconds, the lock sprang open with a click, and, with a small creaking sound, the door swung open. Lily felt no fear, only a sort of exhilaration as she took another glance at her list.  
"Hiscock 's Potions–three tablespoons ground werewolf fur." Quietly as a shadow, she started moving through the store, checking shelves and pulling off boxes. With a small gasp of triumph, she spotted a box way back in one of the lower shelves, labeled Ww.Fur. She pulled it out and took a handful of the fur, stuffing it into her bag. Replacing the box and re-locking the door, Lily moved back out. No one had even suspected that there had been a thief in the potions shop.  
When she re-emerged, she was quick to notice that there was a faint golden glow amongst the black clouds in the east. Flitting among the alleys and trees, she made it back to her room without anyone noticing her. She opened the window to admit her, slipped inside, and pulled the cloak close around her, hearing the soft pads of a house-elf on the carpet outside. She climbed into her bed, drew the covers around her neck, and partly closed her eyes.   
A small elf, looking very like Minky, came in with a small house-elf baby strapped to her back. The baby, like its mother, had large, green, tennis-ball eyes and batlike ears, and it was sleeping peacefully. The mother knelt down at the fire, fussed a bit with tongs and the poker, and left the room with a roaring fire behind her. The baby started to cry just as she left the room, and Lily could distinctly hear the mother say, "Dobby, hush!"   
Quickly, Lily sat up in bed and pulled the elf-nymph necklace out from under her shirt. Knocking it against the four-poster, she landed just outside Tom's cave. She had just time to hide the necklace before he emerged and came towards her with a greedy gleam in his eyes.   
"You got it?"   
Lily nodded. "Yes." She burrowed around in her bag and came up with the fur. "I'll get two or three tomorrow–it was just too late tonight."   
Tom accepted the handful with a covetous grasp. He vanished into the cave, with a whispered, "Thanks a million. But you'd better get back; they'll be wondering where you are."   
She followed his advice and got back to her room, changing quickly into her black nightgown. Lily even had time for a three-hour nap before Severus knocked at the door and took her down to breakfast.   
The rest of the day passed in a flash. Lily had a hard time keeping her excitement about seeing her mother again soon, but she nevertheless managed it, without the help of makeup. They spent the day in the pool behind the Malfoy's mansion, and Severus and Lucius were relieved to see that she was being carefree once more, and that her face looked less strained after she beat them at the amount of laps they could swim without coming up for air. Lily won six to three to two and half.  
The next night, Lily was off again, this time to Fraeden Square for the plant part of a two-week-old Mandrake. No one noticed the tiny shadow slipping in and out of darkness, least of all the sleeping baby Mandrake. She came close to being discovered when she accidentally knocked off the lid of a trash can, but the small homeless troll simply sat up, snorted a few times, and went back to sleep. Lily started moving again as soon as she heard the snoring.   
The next place she broke into was a home. It was, like the Malfoy's mansion, large, grand, and imposing, but the difference was that this home had no magical alarm. Lily was a bit disappointed, as she had practiced her disabling spell in her room that evening, but she nevertheless made it inside with the help of the chisel and a screwdriver as long as her finger.   
Moving silently through the house, she quickly found the study door. "Macnair Residence–Prisonta Drive–study. Grated horn of a bicorn…" The burglar's jemmy opened the door easily and she fumbled around the shelves. "Grated horn…no, that's powdered; grated…grated…" Almost panicking, she knocked a box to the floor, accidentally opening a hidden bottom in it. Her eyes dilated. "Grated horn! Wonderful." Lily picked up half of a handful and made her way out, cleaning up all the mess she had made. She hadn't been noticed by anyone, and, simply out of spite, left an almost unnoticeable trail of powdered bicorn horn all the way to the doorway.   
The sun was deeper than it had been last night, but the gray glow made her quickly return, by back ways, to the Malfoy mansion. She found Tom in the cave, stirring a cauldron over a smallish fountain spouting boiling water. Wordlessly, she handed him the two ingredients, which she had knotted in separate parts of the bag to keep them from mixing.   
Tom smiled as he took the Mandrake leaves out of the bag, and he placed them on a grate over a bright magenta fire to dry. The grated horn of the bicorn, however, he poured into a crucible, which he hung over the cauldron, leaving it to absorb the steam from the werewolf fur and Alendoren Cove dew mixture underneath it.   
The residue of the ingredients he poured into an average-sized graduated cylinder and left it to sit in the very darkest corner of the cave. Lily ventured a question when he was finished.  
"Tom, how long do you think this will take?"   
He looked up. "What, the potion? It's finished as soon as we pour the last ingredient in, which, according to my calculations, should be about…" he consulted his notes, "six days. Yeah. Six. That okay? Well, that is, if you get everything in on time. See, I'd do some of this myself, but I can't get there; you can. Trust me, I'd do it if I could."   
Lily nodded. "I'm quite willing to do this. You're bringing my mother back, after all."   
He nodded. "Yep. And mine."   
"Well, that, too. But still, thanks, Tom."   
Tom nodded. "No problem. But you need to get back now–" he took a peek at his watch–"should be about six where you are."   
"Oh, right." Lily smacked her forehead. "I'll see you tonight. Bye."   
"Bye. See you tonight–Wait!"   
Lily stopped at the entrance to the cave. "What?"   
"Give me the list."   
"OK–sure–" She fumbled in her bag and pulled it out, handing it to him. Tom immediately took up a quill and started to cross off things.


	24. The last hope dashed: funeral taking pla...

"What're you doing?"   
"I made a mistake. Just realized that today." He handed it back to her after checking several books and a large map. "There."   
"Wh–what'd you just do?"   
"I have all the rest of the ingredients–and one of them on there I don't need. But there's another one I do. I've got the address down there and everything–all you need to do is get it. Should be fairly easy."   
Lily read the new address. "I'll say! Only problem is, I live there."   
"You do?"   
"Yeah; look at this. 'Malfoy mansion, someplace in drawing room. Liquid Avada Kedavra potion'. I'm staying at the Malfoy's."   
"That's a problem?"   
"Well–no. Not really." Lily's eyes sparkled mischievously. "More of a challenge!"   
Tom smiled. "That's my girl!"  
Lily returned quickly to her room, strangely excited about what she intended and with a foreseen conscience twinge. Not even the thought of her mother could dispel what Tom had asked her to do–it was easy, snipping leaves off of plants, but these people she knew–they had done things for her, offered her a place to stay–   
But, with the gift of acting she had received from her mother, she got ready for the task, knowing somehow without thinking what she was to do. She slipped into the emerald-green shirt her mother had sent her, along with the earrings that went with it. A gold ring with a stone of the same tint went on her right forefinger, and she slid into one of the new pairs of jeans. Lily pulled out a pair of tennis shoes, and then set herself to do something she hadn't done in about a year and a half. Raising an eyebrow, she pulled out the hair-ornament that served as a sheath for the small poniard.   
Twisting and braiding her hair, curling under and running her fingers through the red locks, she managed to get the golden sheath fixed just exactly right, on the top and back of her head. Squinting critically at her reflection, she pulled down strands to cover her ears and frame her face.   
Her lips were still a bit pale, and, with an improvised sort of paste she made from a pot of rouge in the next room and water, lightly daubed her lips with that. She ran her tongue around her teeth, smiled sweetly at her reflection, picked up the set of drawing pencils and the pad, and made her way downstairs to the living room she, Severus, and Lucius used.  
Tucking one foot underneath her, she quickly started on a sketch of a head she knew quite well. Drawing with the help of a picture she had taken from a mantlepiece, the picture grew under her skilful hands to form Lucius' head. Lily checked her watch. He should be up in about a half-hour–Lily wrinkled her nose. She was ahead of schedule.   
Flipping to another page, she started on a bust of Tom, and she was almost finished with it before she heard the graceful, antique grandfather clock outside in the entrance hall strike eight o'clock. When she heard lazy footsteps in the hallway, however, it seemed to take no time for her to hide Lucius' portrait behind a bookcase and turn back to his portrait. She was touching up a spark in his eye when he came to the door, a bit startled at the smile that adorned her lips.   
"What's that?"   
"What's wha–Oh, Lucius, hi." She made a deliberately clumsy attempt to cover up her sketch, and, grinning a bit, he took the book from her, turning to his own portrait.   
"That's what? Er…well, it's pretty good."   
She ducked her head, forcing the blood to go to her head and give her a pink blush. "Yes–well, Severus' been teaching me."   
"Yeah–I remember–he said you'd be better than him pretty soon. Seems like you already are."   
"Oh–" The blood rushed to her head again. "No–not really. But–" she continued, obviously wanting to get off of the subject, "is there any breakfast yet?"   
It was intentionally a flimsy change of subject, and Lucius knew it. That is, he knew that she was trying to change the subject; he didn't know that she was faking whatever she appeared to be feeling. But he played along with what he thought was the game.   
"I don't know–I'll go check." He left the room, and Lily, following him quietly, laughed to herself as he pulled out his wand in front of Severus' room and locked it. He hightailed it back downstairs and found a demure little figure, eyes downcast, but a bit flushed, shading the haunches of a rabbit.   
"Nah–I guess we're up too early. The house-elves're still cleaning up from that party Mother had last night.   
"Party?" she asked innocently, wide eyes fixed on the person in the doorway.   
"Yeah–someone at the Ministry got promoted, and Mother offered to host a large one here. I think the last person left around five," he added, with a short, scornful laugh.  
"Oh–I thought I heard something, but I wasn't sure…"   
"Well, that was the night before you got that note about your–Never mind," he quickly added at seeing her smile droop. "Say–want to go for a walk outside? It's nice outside–warm, for a change."   
"In opposition to the usual boiling hot? I'll come." Slipping her sketchbook off of her knees and onto the mantlepiece, she stood up and walked with Lucius towards the French windows that opened out onto the garden. They walked about a bit, talking of meaningless things, and finally, Lily deftly succeeded in turning the subject to Defense Against the Dark Arts.   
"Yes–well, I suppose they teach us basics, but they're terrible when it comes to the real stuff."   
"But, Lucius, isn't that the best magical education we could get?"   
"Well, yes, but they're not informing us about the things that matter."   
"Like what?" Lily was excited now; but she kept it hidden under disinterested eyelids.   
"Oh–well, like the Unforgivable Curses. And poisons–only thing they're really preparing us for is if we decide to go and live in a grindylow-infested marsh."  
"Oh–well, I suppose you're right."   
"I am." He looked unconsciously pompous. "I'd show you what I mean if I didn't know that Mother and Father'd murder me for it."

"What?"   
He stole a quick glance around him, then turned back to Lily, almost whispering. "We have our own stock of deadly poisons, and if I could get hold of them, you'd see that nothing you ever learned in that class would do you any good if you were encountered with them."   
Several thoughts ran quickly through Lily's mind. Oppose his beliefs–or encourage them–She decided on opposing.   
"I don't think so. Why, we're prepared for over half of the magical creatures we meet, and if you mean to say that our teachers don't know anything about what matters, then–"   
"All right, fine; I'll show you." He was clearly a bit on the arrogant side, and if Lily had dared, she would have applauded herself. "Come; this way." He took her back through the French windows and through several doors until he arrived in a rather largeish room with the usual expensive furniture. "This is it.?"  
Lily was honestly puzzled. "What is?"   
"This room. Now watch." He pulled a bit of the green velvet carpet aside to reveal the dark mahogany floor.   
"But, Lucius–" Lily had spotted where this was leading to, and she was on tenterhooks in case her 'innocent fool' act failed because she was too excited.   
"Never mind the buts. Look here." He was feeling around on the floor for something; evidently he found it, for something clicked and he had a handle in his hand of the same polished mahogany as the floor. He thought he had concealed the place where it had been very well, which he would have had if Lily hadn't visited the Alendoren Cove before. The beams of her sight caught a small indentation in the wood, too small to be seen with regular vision, but deep enough for her to see. She gave a small gasp.   
"Goodness, but that was smart! I couldn't ever have seen something like that!"   
Lucius smiled. "Well, I didn't either. But watch!" He pulled the handle up, and, out of a clean, glistening floor without a mark in it, he pulled up a door six feet by four, two inches thick. Lily's eyes widened and she moved forward.   
Bottles upon bottles of some sort of liquid were stored there, and boxes and chests of some unknown something. Lily tried to read the labels on all of them, but it wasn't necessary. Lucius dispelled that task by picking up the very bottle she was after.   
Dark and ghostly, with an uncorked top, it glowed with a somewhat blue light. Lucius handed it to her.   
"Liquid Avada Kedavra potion. So deadly you can't even imagine it."   
Lily took it from him; to him, she was simply staring at it, in reality, she was scanning the bottle for any mark that would allow her to tell it apart from the others. Finding none, she contrived to run her nail along the cork, twice, making a crude sort of X.   
"Lucius–but what's it good for? I really can't see–"   
"It has some really neat properties. Like, a drop of it will kill you, same as the curse, but if you take just the right amount, it'll heal you if you've got a desperate wound or something like that.  
Facts in her head quickly connected. This, then, along with all of the other things, would combine–they wouldn't just heal–they'd bring back to life. "Lucius, how much of this does one need for that?"   
His answer came back with startling rapidity. "One mole."   
"One what?"   
"Mole. Six point oh two to the twenty-third power. One mole."   
"Oh." Lily had forgotten. When she'd taken that Advanced Chemistry course, that had been in there–a mole of elements, it usually was. She'd calculated it when she was bored once–if someone had a mole of pennies, they'd be the richest person in the world and beyond, if that was possible.   
"One mole of what?"  
He shrugged. "A mole of a drop of that to the negative ten million trillionth or something like that. Never bothered to figure it out, though."   
"Oh–I see. I don't blame you at all. Well–" she handed it back to him and he replaced it, closing the trapdoor and throwing the rug back over it–"you certainly showed me. I don't think I could defeat that with the stuff I learned at Hogwarts if I tried my best."   
"You certainly couldn't," he agreed.   
That night, Lily never bothered to even get her two-hour nap. As soon as all of the sounds in the house had ceased, she slipped into the clothes she had worn the past two nights and ran downstairs, thinking to herself, "I certainly overdid that Lucius thing. Now he's hovering around me like a moth around a lightbulb."   
Nevertheless, after standing in the shadow of the entrance hall for a good twenty-three minutes to make sure the house was really asleep, she made her way into the drawing room, prised up the handle, and drew up the bottle.   
This time, Lily had taken the precaution of slipping a test tube and cork into her bag, and so the transfer was the easiest thing in the world. She replaced everything just the way it had been, smoothed the carpet, pulled her necklace out, and, as silently as she could manage, hit it against the bookcase.   
She landed rather farther away from Tom's cave than she had the other times, but that was foreseen. Dashing the fifty yards to the glow of white light issuing from the cave entrance, she approached it unnoticed by Tom. He was sitting at the cauldron, mumbling formulas and things to himself.  
  
Meaning to surprise him, Lily quickly snuck up behind him, and, finding him immersed in the bubblings of the liquid in the cauldron, she was about to put her hand on his shoulder, but something he mumbled held him back.   
"Damn, the girl is dumb. I don't know how many times I slipped up when I was explaining this junk to her–oh, man. I might be able to get outta this mess if her mum was a Muggle–could just explain to her that I wouldn't do this for her–oh, no, crap. I need her; that won't work. I could say that this won't work on Muggles…well, I wouldn't bother if her mum was one, anyway. But she's probably not…oh, darn…"   
Lily had heard enough. She didn't know what exactly Tom would do if he knew she had overheard, so she left the cave. Outside, she ran over everything he had told her.  
"The name of the book. If I could remember that–but why would he need the liquid Avada Kedavra to open the book? That's just it–he wouldn't–oh, man, this stinks. I wonder if that book was just a blind–I wonder if he only needs to perform a spell to get it open.

What on earth was the name of that thing, though–something with Traum in it. Dream. Traum–something–oh, this isn't getting me anywhere. Traumwünsche? Wishes of dreams–oh, no, that wasn't it–something Tom would love to have–what did he tell me the other day–"   
She looked up. A fire was kindling in her eyes, a fire that slowly grew and consumed her. "Power," she whispered. "Power above all mortals. Macht. Traum–Traummacht. Power of dreams."   
Then, as if on command, her eyes narrowed. She pulled the corked test tube out of her bag and held it up to the pale light of the moon. Quickly checking to see whether Tom was still at his cauldron, she moved to the shore. Picking another tube out of her bag, she filled that with the deadly poison and poured a bit of the dewy waters of the Alendoren Cove into the used tube. It might have been accident that she left a droplet of the poison in the dewy container; it might not have been, but the color of the replaced substance was the same color as the poison.   
Stowing the container with the poison in it in a hole she burrowed in the sand, she covered it up and ran lightly to the cavern door, knocking softly on the wall.   
"Tom?"   
He immediately stopped his mutterings and turned around. "Lily! Did you get it?"   
She nodded, pulling the dew out of her purse. "Happy birthday."   
He grasped it greedily. "Oh–oh, goodness–Lily, you don't know what this means!"   
I'll bet I do, she thought to herself. And I'll bet you don't know that I know.   
"Tom, that's all right. And what about my mother?"   
His face set in immovable lines as he stared at the cauldron. Lily could tell he was thinking of a plausible lie.   
"Lily, there's something I–" His eyes widened. "RUN!"  
She stood rooted to the spot, but when he dashed towards her and grabbed her cloak, she obeyed his order and dashed as far away as she could. Something under the cauldron had exploded, and it had sent the whole thing blasting into the air. If they had stayed where they were, they would have been blown to bits. As it was, they had managed to get four yards away from the mouth of the cave before it exploded and they were flung headfirst into a maze of boulders. A few minutes after the explosion, everything was quiet. Then Tom, bruised and burned, raised his head a bit triumphantly, looking at the remains of a Filibuster's firework that had landed next to him.   
"Lily?"   
No answer.   
"Lily?"   
Still no answer. He kept on calling and searching till he was hoarse, but he never found a sign of her and never heard a sound other than his own.   
Nor could he. As Lily was flung through the air by the force of the explosion, she saw the great point of a boulder looming towards her as she fell. Realizing swiftly that she would be gored by it if she didn't do something, she pulled at the thing golden chain that was flapping wildly in the wind, held it down in front of her. She kept her arm a bit bent, so when the necklace hit the piece of cliff, it only rendered her arm a bit sore. And, three inches before she hit the boulder, she was flying back to her room, eyes closed in thankfulness, though her whole right arm and back were covered in burns  
With the force of a tornado hitting a city, Lily slammed into her mattress, face downwards. After a few minutes, she raised her shaken head and dared to glance at her right arm. It wasn't as bad as it felt; only the back of it had been injured, and that not so badly, since she had been wearing long sleeves. Only seven small droplets of the burning potion had soaked far enough through her clothing so as to make a burn, and they were only second-degree ones. But her back was far worse. When she had been flung through the air, her shirt had come up and her cloak had flapped out of the way, leaving a clear patch of skin for the hot drops to fall on. Several third-degree burnt circles, about as large as her thumbnail, were dotted all over her lower back, and she could hardly lift herself up. Lily tried rolling over on her back, but she quickly had to change her position. Practically biting right through her lip, she managed to stand up and move towards her bathroom. In there, she drew quite a bit of cold water, dunked a washcloth in it, and shuddered as the chilly piece of material sent cold beads of water flowing down her hot and scorched back.   
She didn't sleep at all; she stayed awake that whole night trying to ease the aching and to wash off the smoke scorched onto her bare skin. Her clothing had been relatively undamaged; in fact, the only thing that had been marred was the right sleeve of her black shirt. Nevertheless, as soon as the house-elf left after building the fire, she hurried to burn it, and even then she had to cover her face as the potion on the shirt started to give off sparks.   
The morning wore on, and in between washing off scorch marks and burning her ruined clothing, she had time to think of just what she had lost. Not only had she lost her mother; she had lost her twice. For a few short, happy days, she had been in possession of a beautiful secret, a secret which would grant her heart's desire, and then–then–it was dashed. Flung on the floor with a careless gesture and allowed to shatter. And, as that thought seeped into her mind, the tautness of her complexion began to return, and the circles around her eyes.   
By nine, Lily was still awake and drinking a pot of black coffee in the windowseat, and at nine oh five, Severus came in, with a sort of bright smile on his face and a cheery good morning on his lips.  
"Lily! Morning! You're looking–looking–" He stopped for words. "Erm–ah…"   
Lily cut his stammering off. "Terrible. I don't care. Say it; I've never been averse to the truth."   
He shook his head. "Nah–you just look a bit sad."   
"A bit?"   
"All right, then, fine. A lot. And you've got good reason to. Come on. You all right?"   
"Of course I'm not."   
He nodded. "Stupid of me. I shouldn't have asked. Naturally you're not. But are you feeling better than you did?"   
Slowly, thinking hard, Lily shook her head.   
"No. Neither better–yes, I feel worse. Sadder, mostly. And a bit angry."   
Lucius flung the door open, and Lily silently hoped he had forgotten yesterday's little act. "Morning, Lily, Severus."

Severus turned to the doorway. "Oh, hi. What're we doing today?"   
"Mother wants to go to Madraiden Place; she and her friends are meeting at this German café, so we've got free license to go wherever. Where do you two want to go?"   
Severus looked at Lily, who spoke rather hesitantly.   
"I think–I think–I've never been to Madraiden Place, Firestream Lane, or Fraeden Square–not really. Only restaurants at night and things. Is there anything good there?"   
Lucius nodded his head sort of diagonally. "Well–Madraiden Place is full of little cafés where lots of people like my mom hang out, lots of jewelry stores, there's a fancy dress robe place there, too. Designer, but I doubt you're interested in that."   
"Oh." Lily nodded. "Kinda like the mall."   
"The what?"   
"Never mind."   
"'K. Firestream Lane–they have a whole bunch of restaurants there and antique stores…they've got an extension of Zonko's near the end…umm…lots of furniture places and stuff like that. Mother loves it. Anyway, Fraeden Square is this circular place with a huge fountain in the middle of it, and around it you have the people with stands and booths and stuff. They sell lots of flowers and vegetables–pretty much like a marketplace. And Diagon Alley you know. Kid stuff."   
Lily nodded. "I know. Do you–I don't know–Fraeden Square sounds better than all of the others–do you mind if we go there?"   
Lucius and Severus looked at each other and nodded agreeably. "Sure. Get dressed in something cool, though; it's burning up outside."  
Lily pulled on the blouse her mother had sent her, the necklace that went with it, and one of the pairs of bluejeans. Turning around to look at herself in the mirror, she gasped.   
The blouse covered her back very well, but the seven black burnt marks on her arm were plainly evident. Lily could see at once that not one bit of makeup would help in that case. Sighing, she pulled the blouse over her head, took the jeans off, and donned a different black shirt, long black pants, and Severus' cloak. She could wear the cloak to the Square; it wasn't as if no one in the wizarding world wore one.   
Glimpsing her sad picture in the mirror, she remembered the first time not too long ago when she had worn all black–just after she had received the news about her mother ailing. And then her mother had been alive.   
Her mother had never been happy with her decision to stop with the beauty products, and, remembering that, Lily slowly took out a brush. With several scores of strokes, her hair was glittering and shiny, long and soft, as it hung down to mid-waist. Tying a black kerchief around it, she slipped into a pair of black sandals and went downstairs.   
Severus and Lucius were waiting for her. Lucius reached inside the Floo Powder container.   
"Mother already left. She gave us as much money to spend as we want to–she gave us some for you, too."   
Severus was staring at her attire. "Lily, you sure that's a good choice of clothing for today?"   
She shrugged. "It's good enough for me." Ignoring the critical looks the two boys gave her, she stepped forward into the flames, saying in a low, clear voice, "Fraeden Square."   
Running through the boys' minds had been the same line of thought–"She's beautiful, you can tell, and her hair looks pretty; which is a change. She'd be perfect if only–if only her face didn't look quite so corpse-like."   
When she emerged from the spinning whirlstorm of soot and ash, she had to stop herself from falling forward by a violent lunge. Shaking the black mess from her hair, she found herself in an empty fireplace in an alcove behind several booths; but in the center there was a large passageway; almost six feet wide, that led out onto a bright and sunny square.  
Behind her, Lily heard several 'oof's and 'ugh's, and, whirling, she caught sight of her two friends sprawling almost on top of each other on the mosaic street. They scrambled up quickly, however, and, with grins, each of them took one of her arms and led her out into Fraeden Square.   
It was beautiful; beautiful and bright and sunny. In the middle, as advertised, it did present a beautiful fountain, circular, about twenty feet in diameter and decorated with all sorts of creatures spouting fountains of water, all surrounding the figure of a magnificent stallion, with mane and tail flying wildly in the wind, and underneath his pounding hooves, water sprayed, giving the impression that he had just jumped into a sort of shallow pond.   
It was stunning, however, and by the sides of it several small children played, throwing small coins into the basin and splashing each other with water. Others were sitting on the ground next to the fountain playing Gobstones, and whenever the nasty-smelling liquid got squirted into their faces, the fountain was always nearby to provide a wash. And surrounding this were many millions of tiny booths and stands, all filled with interesting items, some exotic, some homemade, many sweet, and some simply farmer's items.   
This, however, was the place reminding her most of the marketplace she had visited in Germany, when her mother had been out of town and taken her with her. She had accompanied her father to a business meeting, and while in Wiesbaden she, Petunia, and Lily had gone across the river to Mainz, the town where Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press had lived.   
They had printed pages of beautiful script in the replica of Gutenberg's old workshop, and had come out all inky. To wash off, her mother had suggested they go to the marketplace, and there they had soaked themselves and their clothes with the water in the fountain in the center of the square. A softer, longing look came to Lily's face as she shook Severus and Lucius away and wandered to a free part of the side of the fountain. There she sat down, facing the stallion, letting the cool splashing mists of the water cool her hot face off. Partly off in another world, she was startled to hear a voice behind her.   
"Hello, stranger!"  
James and Sirius had taken Floo powder to Fraeden Square, too; Sirius' mother had wanted him to get her a whole list of things from one of the booths. Sirius was busy, and James didn't feel like standing in line forever, so he started to wander around the square. Practically halfway around, his gaze fell on the back on someone he knew, someone with red hair. But it was more–well, more groomed than usual, and even though she was wearing all black, James knew Lily looked pretty good. When she started and whirled around, however, it took all of his self-control not to let his jaw drop.

Her hair, true, was brushed and tied back neatly, but–well, he could think of nothing more she resembled than a picture entitled, 'Walking Death' that he had seen in Severus' sketchbook once when he had been snooping. The roundness to her cheeks was gone, her lips were almost transparent, and her eyes had sunk into the hollows of the sockets. Looking at him out of caverns, the startled eyes of what he had once known as Lily stared back at him. It was all he could do to prevent himself form touching her cheek, wondering if the bone was really about to jut out of her skin. Pale, drawn, white, and frightening, a total contrast to the beautiful hair falling around her shoulders, she looked as much out of place as a package of floppy disks in the freezer.   
"So–" He kicked the street nervously. "You're staying with Snape and Malfoy?"   
Lily nodded her head. "Yes," came out of a clear, low, dead throat. James regretted even making her talk.   
"Oh." At a bit of a loss as to what to say, he picked on the first thing that came to mind.   
"I–I saw you in Diagon Alley a few days ago."   
"I know."  
He was startled. This wasn't the hot-tempered, fiery, full-of-life girl he had seen get off of the train at the end of the school year–this was a lackadaisical, listless, depressed woman. It surprised him to hear himself think that, but on reflecting, he knew that what he could see she was going through, whatever it was, was more than many adults had ever experienced.   
Sighing, he let himself flop down on the side of the fountain, next to her. "So–you happy school's out?"   
"Yes."   
"Whatcha planning to do? Are you coming to Eva's at all this summer? Me and Sirius and Remus are there."   
"Oh."   
"Well, do you think you might be able to make it? You can go swimming there."   
"Lucius has a pool."   
"Oh. I see. But Eva talks about you all the time–" He broke off. Whenever Eva or anyone else mentioned Lily, Eva grew quiet all of a sudden and wouldn't talk about the letter she had gotten from her lately. Not even snoop attempts to dig into her things had worked; she kept it hidden too well.   
"Well–we'd all like to see you."   
"I wonder."   
"We really would. It's probably ever so much nicer than Malfoy's place–all gloomy and black–"   
She cut him off smoothly. "Lucius' family is very kind; letting me stay at their mansion."   
What was wrong with her, he thought. All her responses were correct and all, but they were just too darned polite and stand-offish. What had happened to her over the past week?   
"You couldn't think of coming for a visit?"   
"I am happy where I am. Thank you for your concern."   
She had ended the conversation so finally that James was relieved when Sirius waved at him to come over and he could leave without being rude, with only a quick, "See you sometime, then."  
The days seemed to fly until her mother's funeral. It had been fixed to three weeks after Lily's birthday, which had gone totally unnoticed, at ten in the morning, in the Jewish graveyard in Mainz–Lily's mother's sister had married someone that had been Jewish, and she was buried in that cemetery. So they had thought it fitting for Lily's mother to be buried near her favorite sibling, and near people who were relatives–some grandparents twice removed, but still, relatives.   
The morning of the funeral, Lily got ready mechanically. She had first reached for her black clothing, but upon reconsidering, she pulled the burgundy turtleneck her mother had bought her out of the closet. Fastening the earrings that went with it in her ears and her old garnet necklace around her neck, she gently opened her trunk.   
There, on top of all of her other things, in a special box, lay the precious things her mother had left her. Hesitating at first, then boldly, she lifted the beautiful golden headdress out of its wrappings and fastened it to her hair, braiding and coiling and twisting it to form the image of a noblesse. Slowly, very slowly, she pulled the beautiful, golden-hilted poniard out and placed it in its sheath, remembering as if from far away a peculiar custom one of her mother's roles had required her to perform.   
Clutching A Midsummer Night's Dream (Titania's roles had been highlighted), she flitted downstairs, seating herself in the entrance hall, waiting for Mrs. Malfoy to take her to the graveyard.   
Mrs. Malfoy arrived shortly after. Her eyebrows mounted her forehead as she saw Lily's attire, when, after all, this was a funeral, but she quickly threw a pinch of the familiar green powder into the fire. Lily stepped inside, the steadying hand of her friend's mother on her back.   
When they emerged from the inside of an interestingly built crypt, which held an almost forgotten fireplace inside, Lily almost fell forward onto the grass as Severus and Lucius tripped and smashed into her.   
"Lucius! Severus! What, by Caesar's carcass, are you doing here?"   
Even though they had mouthfuls of dust, they managed to choke out laughter.   
"Caesar's what?"   
Lily turned a bit red. "That was an impulse. I meant Merlin's beard."   
"You said Caesar's carcass."   
"What are you doing here?"   
"Well–this is special for you, and if that's so, we're not about to miss it."   
That speech, short and crude, nevertheless made Lily rush to the two boys and hug them tightly, whispering out a choked, "Thank you!"  
A bit embarrassed, she let go of the boys, to their relief; that had shocked them quite a bit. Head up, Lily walked toward the beautiful teak casket lying next to the freshly dug grave. She glanced around at the guests and then had to lean on a nearby gravestone.   
Everyone she even halfway valued was there. Of course, her father and Petunia, Eva, Vanessa, Amanda–even Abigail and the snoring twins from her old dormitory–Heather and Anne. Most of last year's class–and Miranda, Anya, John, Nigel, Ashley, Jacqueline, Joseph–the whole Gryffindor Quidditch team–and the Slytherin one–Frank Crichlow, Clive Allen, Stephen Gregson, Roderick Alton, Edgar Hatcher, Cathryn Clarik–Lily could have cried. Some of them she knew she wouldn't see again; they had left Hogwarts–Stephen Gregson had graduated early, and this was wonderful. And practically fifty parents and–oh.   
Her gaze had fallen on a group of five, standing close to the Gryffindor team. Lily's face drew together in a pained gaze, to keep from crying.


	25. The funeral service and a surprise

True, Serena was there, but–Peter, biting his nails, and there was Remus, obviously not caring that tonight was a full moon, and James, nervously trying to flatten his hair–and Sirius, staring out over the crowd, until he located her, and when he had done so, gave her a nod that did her more good than any hugs or notes of sympathy.   
And then–then–   
Someone had stepped up to the head of the casket and pulled out a small, leather-bound notebook. He was old and wrinkled, and he wasn't ordained by any clergy, but Lily was glad he was doing this for her mother. It was her grandfather, with the carrying voice and beautiful tones both she and her mother had inherited, though Lily didn't know that. He cleared his throat and started to speak.  
"We all knew Moira Evans; if we didn't, we know her daughters. I don't mean to start this off by saying how wonderful she was, or how fortunate we all are to have her two daughters with us. Moira wasn't by any means perfect, and that was part of her charm. I can see around me several people that knew my daughter when she was young, and you knew what she was like.   
"You knew how impetuous she was, how convincing, how conniving. I can only say how thankful I am that she loved me, loved me as a father. She was the terror of the town we used to live in; the youthful little actress. She was smarter than anyone in her classes; she picked up quickly all that was taught her. If anyone failed at something, she would try it, if only to prove that she could. I know many people hated her for that, I know how many admired her for it.   
"Our small town never knew a better little actress than Moira; we never knew a more charming little creature. Even when she grew older, she never lost that wild side of her character. She married when she was only nineteen, but she made her husband a better wife than many that married when they were forty.   
"We all love Moira. I know that may seem far-fetched to some, who only know her daughters, but those of us that love her daughters love part of their mother. Every child has part of each parent in her, each child will always bear that till the end of her days. That alone is more precious than any monument that man can ever erect.   
"I can truthfully say, 'Thank God my daughter was not perfect.' If she had been, I would not see what I do today. No person is ever truly attracted to anyone that is perfect, to anyone that isn't the least bit wild, and this gathering alone shows how much she was loved, how much she was needed, how much of her shall remain in our hearts. I know, I believe, I will always believe, that with Moira Evans a beautiful, a precious, a special, a priceless part of humanity and society has vanished."  
He went on and on, each word ringing in Lily's ears like the sounds of an organ, but she only remembered this first part. And after a half hour, people were pulling out handkerchiefs and sniffing, among them Mrs. Malfoy.   
When Lily's grandfather had finished, he looked about the gathering, looking for something, something unexpected at least by Lily. Meeting the old man's eyes, James walked slowly up to the coffin; behind him Sirius and Remus. The three shot a glare at Peter, who, shy and tongue-tied, remained behind, but they nevertheless faced the congregation. Remus and Sirius nodded to James, who looked down, smoothed out his black robe, raised his head, and spoke.   
"I didn't know Mrs. Evans at all, really. She was more the mother of one of my friends to me, the average strict parent that the daughter can't wait to get away from. And when I saw Lily,–" he gestured to the silent statue leaning on a rounded stone–"before I had heard about her mother, I had no idea what was wrong. She looked as if she had just been murdered, or someone close to her. And I wasn't that far off.   
"She had lost someone so dear to her that I now still can't see her living on as usual without her. Going only by that, and by the people gathered here, I know she was much more than just a parent. She was a friend, a comforter, a confidante, someone who can never be replaced. Someone who, now that she has left us, has left an empty hole in many people's lives that can never be refilled, not by anyone.   
"She was unique, she was brilliant; even inspiring, and from what I know, which barely scrapes the surface, I can truly say, from everyone's heart, that what her father said today is true; that with Mrs. Evans a beautiful, priceless piece of humanity and society has vanished."   
This brought tears to almost everyone's eyes; those that had stood silent, with dry handkerchiefs, had suddenly begun to dig around in their coat pockets or purses for extra tissues. And, standing alone, head bowed silently, Lily's silent tears had begun to flow onto her cheeks and onto the ground. Though she was the only one who knew, she cried her heart out at her mother's funeral.  
When they closed the casket, Lily and many others walked up to say a last goodbye. Lily was the last in line, and secretly, she pulled the poniard out of its sheath. It was as sharp as the day it had been made, and, wincing a bit, she drove the tip along her left forefinger, drawing only a drop of blood. Her mother had had to do this for one of her plays, and Lily had the odd idea that if she only had a tiny bit of her mother in her bloodstream, she wouldn't really die. Later, when she was older and was reflecting on that day, she never knew what drove her to do that, though she was thankful she had.   
The delicate blade drove into her finger, and, for a short instant, gleamed brightly. Lily didn't know whether that was from a passing beam of the sun or something else, but she nevertheless pressed her forefinger close to her palm. And when the line in front of her had vanished, the small poniard came out again. As she pressed her lips to her mother's cold forehead, she contrived to cut off the small braid her mother always wore tucked behind her ear. Hiding it quickly in her pocket, she slowly stroked her mother's still, impassive face one last time, then turned away.   
She evaded all of the people at the gathering and walked on by herself towards the children's graveyard. Sitting on her haunches in front of a grave that a two-day old boy had been buried in, her eyes swept over the small stones placed on the headstone. Someone must have loved him a lot, she thought.   
A crackling behind her made her look up, then, seeing who it was, she turned back.  
"Lily? You all right?"   
"Fine."   
"No. You're not. But never mind that." Sirius sat down next to her. "Your mother was beautiful."   
Lily slowly nodded.   
"I'm sorry."  
At that, she raised her head, eyes full of unshed tears. "Why be sorry? It wasn't your fault."   
"I know that. But I'm sorry you lost her."

Lily winked away tears. "Do you know, the only reason I came down here is to escape hearing people say that? But–but now–" She searched for words. "Somehow, when you say that, it doesn't sound–sound–well, disagreeable."   
"Come here." He quickly reached over and took her in a long hug, conscious of her small chest heaving up and down with swallowed sobs.   
When she shook herself loose, she looked straight at him, with nothing but gratitude in her eyes.  
"Sirius, I don't know how I can tell you how much that meant to me."   
"I know. You want to slap every single sniveling dotard and spinster that pats you on the back and hands you a used handkerchief."   
She smiled through her half-blindness. "You know me so well it's frightening."   
"Oh, it's not really that hard." He leaned against the wall. "So, what did you think of James' little speech?"   
Lily shrugged. "I don't know."   
"You do know he only found out about this five minutes before we arrived, don't you?"   
Lily stared. "What?"   
"He made that up on the spot. Good, wasn't it?"   
Sinking back, Lily gazed at the ground. "I had no idea. It–well, it sounded rehearsed."   
"It was very good, yes. Hang on–I'll be back." He quickly stood up and left, brambles crackling beneath his feet. Soon Lily heard him return.   
"Lil?"   
Only one person called her that–Lily raised her head. "James?"   
He gestured to the ground beside her. "May I sit down?"   
She shrugged. "Sure."   
"Thanks." He pushed a few weeds out of the way and sat, first staring at the gravestones and then at the white, drawn figure beside him.  
He finally spoke, startling Lily out of a half-dream.   
"I'm sorry."   
"Don't be."   
"I'm just sorry you feel like this."   
"I hate sympathy. And right now, that's the last thing I need."   
James blew. "Well, you were accepting it nicely enough when Sirius was over here, weren't you?"   
Lily fixed him with the glare of all the ferocity she could muster. "Well, Sirius, for one thing, isn't the stuck-up, conceited, backstabbing idiot you are."   
His eyebrows were in danger of disappearing into his hair. "So? And since when are you Miss Perfect?"   
Lily stood up, brushing the leaves off of her clothing. "Goodbye."   
He quickly leaped up and caught her by the arm. "Lil, wait! I didn't really mean it--please, come sit down--I'm sorry!"   
Already more than a bit shaken, Lily was in no mood for an argument, so she let herself be dragged to a bench. Neither of them spoke for a while, and then James ventured a comment.   
"Your hair looks nice."   
She shrugged. "I know. Not looking as much like the electocuted pheonix anymore, am I?"   
He ground his teeth. "Do you mind? I'm trying to start a decent conversation and you're doing nothing but pick a fight!"   
She looked at him quizzically. Then, dropping the mask of carelessness she had worn since James had stopped speaking over the casket, her face softened into more lenient lines. The hollows in her cheeks and the caverns around her eyes were still prominent, and she was by no means pretty, but she did look more natural. "You're right. I'm sorry."   
"'S all right. God knows I'd be pitching a fit if my dad died."   
Lily half-smiled. "Sad thing is, I can see you doing that."   
"Doing what?"   
"Pitching your miniature fit on the wet ground, screaming, 'But Mommy, you said we'd go to that World Cup together! You broke your promise! Waah!"   
Surprisingly, he also smiled. "You know, I can see myself in that position, too."   
"Hm."   
"Oh, well." He leaned back and stared at the sky, then jerked his head back down. "Lil, what I told you that time in Fraeden Square the other day--I really meant it."   
"Which part?"   
"The inviting you to come and stay at Eva's part. We'd all like to see you, and frankly, I think that Cissa and you'd be really good friends after you get to know each other better."   
"Cissa?" Lily stared at him, not comprehending.   
"Yeah,--you used to pick fights with her all the time. Serena. I call her Cissa, though--sort of an abbreviation of her middle name."   
"The only name that jumps to mind is 'Narcissa'."   
"That's exactly what it is. Why?"   
Lily was trying not to snort. "Nothing. It fits her very well."  
"Why does it fit her so well?" James was on the defensive, fists jammed into his pockets.   
Lily frowned. "I should have thought that was obvious."   
"Why?"  
She sighed. "Ever heard of the Greek myths, genius boy?"   
"Yeah. Weren't they like Jupiter and Cupid and them?"   
Rolling her eyes, Lily was doing all she could to keep from snorting again. "James, idiot dear, those are Roman. You're halfway right–the Greek names for those were Zeus and Eros."  
"Oh yeah, that thundery god-thingy."   
"Uh–right. Still, one of those tales has this character named Narcissus in there.  


He's very much like your dear Cissa–he looks nice, but he's vain and conceited and–don't snap at me! She is! But anyway, this guy falls in love with himself and wastes away by the edge of a pool, staring at his reflection. That would be Narcissus."   
"Oh." James looked truly puzzled. "But I thought she was named after a narcissus flower!"   
Lily rolled her eyes again. "I left that part out. When he died, a flower sprang up where he had been, and that flower the nymphs named 'narcissus.' So, either way, your sweetheart is named for someone very like Dorian Gray."   
"Who?"   
Lily shut her eyes. "Never mind."   
"All right; I won't." He got up, then obviously remembered something and sat back down, taking her arm awkwardly. "Lil?"   
"Hmm?"   
"I'm sorry about your mother. She sent you those clothes, didn't she?"  
Lily twisted around to stare at him. She had detested every single sniveling old drooling hag that came up to her and had hugged her, squeezing tears out of the hag's eyes and the breath from Lily's body, managing to convey the impression that Lily was being most disrespectful by appearing in colors at her mother's funeral, but, just like Sirius–well, this time was different. He had dropped his usual joking manner, and was quiet, rational, and serious. Lily didn't know how, but she knew that he had really meant what he had just said. She didn't bother with thank-yous; that part was unneeded.   
"Do you know how much that meant to me?"   
James looked straight into her eyes. "Not really–because I've never lost a parent, but almost."   
"I can't thank you enough for that."   
"Don't bother. I've been–well, hideous enough to you as is."   
Surprisingly, Lily swallowed the jibe that sprang to her tongue almost effortlessly. "Still–thanks."   
They both started as a voice came floating over the gravestones. "James? Eva's leaving, and remember, you promised me you'd teach me how to dive like you do."   
Lily's face twisted back into its original tautness, and James stood up, shaking his black robes free of cracked paint. "Honestly, you'd think she'd know better; this is a funeral, after all."   
Lily only raised her eyebrows and stood up, too, following him out of the graveyard. When Serena took his arm and led him away, he looked back over his shoulder, mouthing, "Chin up!"   
Lily nodded to him over Mrs. Malfoy's shoulder. "I will."  
When they got home, Lucius gave a short excuse for taking Lily out for a walk in the gardens, and when they were far enough away from the house, they stopped their meandering chatter.   
"Lily, about your mother being a Muggle?"   
"I was wondering about that. I mean–does your mother know?"   
"Thank God, no. She might just order you out of our house if she did. No; I told her that two members of your family were Squibs, and that accounted for the Muggles that were there."   
"Oh. Good. That is–not the 'she will order me out of the house'–that I'm a bit edgy about."   
"And we've got to keep that secret."   
Lily frowned. "Lucius, how much would you mind if I went over to Eva's to stay for about a week or so?"   
He was startled. "Why?"   
"I don't know how long I can keep up that deception, or even if I want to. Do you mind a lot?"   
She could tell he did, though why was a mystery to her, but finally he shook his head. "Nah–it's all right. We don't mind. At least, I don't."   
"Really?"   
"Really. You want to see your other friends, too, don't you?"   
Lily nodded.   
"I see. All right–I'll tell Mother."   
Two days later, Mr. Malfoy was getting ready to drop Lily off at Eva's (in other words, making sure he was wearing expensive, perfect designer clothing, so as to seem rich–he was adjusting the silver lace around his collar), and Lily was finishing up her packing. She wasn't wearing anything special; only a pair of bluejeans and an old shirt of her mother's, with 'The Youth Actor's Company' on it that she had used as a sleepshirt the last two nights. She hadn't taken great pains with her hair; just brushed it and tied it back with the black kerchief, but it still looked pretty nice. The only thing she hadn't bothered to fix or spruce up was her expression–she looked more like a hunted fox than ever. That might have been part of the reason Mrs. Malfoy had been relieved to see Lily go someplace else–if Lily happened to get sick or die here, she'd be responsible, and, besides, it was nasty living in a house where someone's corpse had been on the bed.  
Slamming the trunk shut, Lily enlisted Severus' help in dragging it downstairs. They walked out on the porch for a bit of sunlight, since the house had all of the magical air conditioners working full blast.   
"Lily?"   
"What?"   
"You won't come back from there hating me and Lucius, will you?"   
She scoffed at that. "Why would I?"   
"Well–they might try to make you–it's no secret that they don't like me."   
Lily turned and faced Severus squarely. "Have I ever let myself been influenced like that against my friends?"   
"Does James count?"   
"No." She laughed. "Well–he was being a git."   
"As usual."   
Lily was about to reply in agreement, but then his face at the children's graveyard flitted in front of her face–serious and sympathetic–truly sympathetic, and she couldn't reply.   
Severus frowned. He couldn't guess exactly what she was thinking of, but he had a pretty good idea.   
"So–what's this, you're starting to defend him? Next thing you know, you'll be brandishing a marriage license in my face, with 'Lily Potter' on it."   
Lily scowled. "Shut up! And goodbye." She flounced inside the house and slammed the door, ignoring Severus'–"You didn't deny it!"

They arrived at Eva's using Floo powder, and after presenting Lily to Eva's parents, Mrs. Malfoy Disapparated hurriedly, leaving Lily with Eva's mother, a welcoming atmosphere, and the twins.   
"Lily! We've missed you!" And, almost immediately, Lily was engulfed by her two friends in a large, comforting hug. When they finally let go, Lily's trunk had been lugged upstairs by a house-elf. Eva and Vanessa were obviously in very good moods as they shepherded Lily to her old room.   
"Lily, you're getting changed. Now. We're drinking lemonade and swimming outside, and you're coming with us."   
Lily laughed, petting Willoughby, who had immediately followed her and plumped himself on the windowseat. "I'll come. Even though the only decent suit I have is that black one I used at Lucius'."   
Eva waved that away. "That doesn't matter. You've got a suit, and you're coming outside with us, or I'll know the reason why."   
"You won't have to. I'll be right out." And with that, Lily quickly changed into the black one-piece, knotted a black cover-up around her hips, slipped into a pair of sandals but kicked them right back off, and flung the door open, running down the spiral staircase.   
"Eva? Vanessa?"   
They emerged from Eva's room, Eva in a light blue suit, Vanessa in a grey one. "You ready?"   
"Yes."   
"Good. We're…off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz. We hear he is as wonderful wiz as ever a wiz there was. As ever as ever a wiz there was, the wizard of Oz is one because…" They raced each other down the dark blue carpet-lined hallway, stopping, out of breath, in the ocher-carpeted room leading to the terrace.   
"Vanessa, all clear?"   
"I'll check." Vanessa vanished onto the terrace, and, a few seconds later, she yelled back, "All set, Chief!"   
Ignoring Lily's questions, Eva led her friend out onto the porch, laughing as hard as anyone did when Lily clapped her hands to her mouth in surprise at the greeting she got from practically half of Hogwarts.  
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, ITS LATE BUT SO WHAT, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR LILY, HAAAAAAPPY BIRTHDAY TOOOOO AYOUUUU…"   
All of the people that had been at her mother's funeral and then some were crowded around a large, white table, covered with a beautiful linen tablecloth, a crystal pitcher of lemonade for every three people, plates, cups, and silverware enough for everyone, and a large cake in the center; red velvet, with cream cheese icing and dark red flowers surrounding the writing in the middle–"We love you, Lily!"   
Lily almost cried, but at the sight of everyone surrounded there and their faces, she ended up laughing instead.  
In addition to the hand-made placecards in front of every table, there was a pile of packages in front of Lily's place. Her friends were practically fighting each other for the 'honor' of pulling her chair out for her, and they repeated their song once they had pushed Lily into her seat and placed a tiara on her head. It was actually a hat made out of Daily Prophets, but Amanda told Lily to 'pretend it's a tiara and see what happens.' Breathless, noisy, and laughing, everyone slid into their respective seats, attacking voraciously the large, round, five-layer pyramid-like cake as they watched Eva, Sirius, Vanessa, and Amanda rip the packing off of the presents.   
Forty-five minutes later, Lily was the proud possessor of what seemed like half of Honeydukes, a good fourth of Zonko's, several new body cords for her fencing equipment (from Amanda), since hers had died, a tiny companion for Alisande (a tawny owl with odd white streaks), and as much happiness as it was possible for her to cram inside her. Then, when everyone was lying outside on the lawn, randomly rolling over onto Dungbombs and lobbing Owl Treats and Ice Mice at each other, Sirius and Remus jumped up.   
"Everyone ready for the pool?"   
Everyone had been in bathing suits since they had set foot on the terrace, so the response was a general roar and a mad dash for the pool.   
James and Lily were the first ones in; Lily had beaten James to the high dive and done a series of imitation cheerleader jumps, earning a large laugh, especially as she pretended to do a split and came up holding her knees together and spitting water out, yelling, "OUCH!"   
James immediately imitated her antics, but with a lot more flopping around. It was on his second dive that Lily got sick of this and lobbed a wet Filibuster's at him, causing him to land in a beautiful belly-flop on the surface of the water with a loud SMACK.   
He recovered surprisingly well, and went on diving underwater until he reached Serena, who was busy piling her blond curls on top of her head to avoid getting them splashed. Swimming into the shallow end, he grabbed her around the knees, dunking her, and came up to face a mad cat and a caterwauling of applause from the others on the side and in the pool.   
"You–you–what'd you do that for?"   
"This is a pool, dummy! Swim, have fun, get wet, oh, come on, you didn't come here just to wade around?"   
Serena said nothing, simply glared at him from under sopping wet bangs hanging in her eyes.   
"You did?"   
Serena squared her shoulders, raised her hand, and, just when everybody, including James, thought she was going to slap him, she hit the water's surface with her hand, causing a few drops to splash him in the face.   
"So–so you're not mad?"  
Serena fairly shrieked, the rest bellowed, and James keeled over, falling into the pool and coming up, choking on a mouthful of water.   
"Th–that was supposed to hurt? Cissa, good Lord, this is a pool, girl! I'm already wet!"   
Serena hit the water a few more times, jumped out, and seated herself carefully on the other end of the basin, trying fruitlessly to ignore the flames burning up the lawn chair's towel she was lying on (Lily had thrown a firecracker at her).   
They went on swimming, sometimes racing, sometimes playing water-volleyball, which the Muggle-born kids had to introduce to the wizarding ones. They fooled around until the sun was throwing its last pink, purple, and orange rays over the horizon, and then Sirius and James ordered everyone out of the pool, seating them on the well-trimmed grass. Everyone had a clear view of the dark night, lit only by the lamps at either side of the pool, and when those were extinguished, people started to murmur. Except Eva and Vanessa; they had been informed, since it was their place.

After about five minutes, however, the light started to attract moths, and Peter was running madly around the pool with a swarm of moths following the firelight. Peter hadn't figured out yet that he was to drop the hoops, and, between laugh attacks, everyone was wondering when he would figure that out. He was relieved, however, when Sirius threw a bucket of water on him and told him to 'quit acting like a nearly headless turkey'. Then, holding a torch, James appeared, holding it in one hand and something else under the other. Draped in a toga, he greatly resembled the Statue of Liberty, as he stood in the front of the pool.   
"Kids!"   
Everyone howled.   
"All right, all right, all right. Guys. We're about to show you something you might like. I say might. If you hate fire,–" here he coughed loudly, sounding strangely like, "Cissa!"–"you might want to leave. If you absolutely adore sparks in your hair, stay, be my guest; that's exactly what you're gonna get."   
He nodded over his shoulder to Sirius, by now no more than a black shape in the gloom. He had been attaching something to the lawn chairs, statues, and diving boards surrounding the pools, and now he ran into the bushes. They could hear the sound of pouring water on leaves, and almost immediately, the atmosphere around the pool and the spectators was filled with amazing fireworks, sparklers, noisemakers, lights, and applause.  
The night air lit up with the millions of fireworks that exploded as Sirius poured water over one, which exploded, with bits of it landing in the pool and splashing others, which, in their turn, went off, and so on. The sky was filled with a good fifteen minutes of firecrackers, and, needless to say, applause. Then, randomly, people started doing flips off of the high dive and trying to catch the firecrackers at the same time, so when the crackers went off underwater, it produced an amazing affair of lights.   
The jumper came up with sparkles in his or her hair, which made several of the girls especially eager to join in. Sirius and James won the spontaneous sparkle contest with fifty-seven each (James got a hug and kiss from 'Cissa' as a reward), and, at ten, everybody trooped into bed, tired and exhausted, but in a very good humor.   
Everyone woke up late; around twelve, and when they did, it was only to scarf down a few scones, biscuits, and slices of toast with jam and bacon and to go outside onto the lawn for a few games of soccer (the Muggle-borns had introduced that game, too, and it was a hit). At one, Eva had her mother conjure her up a temporary foil of her own, and she and Lily (who had been giving Eva lessons) entertained the crowd as they paraded up and down in medieval armor and cloaks. Lily, wearing Severus' black cloak, was designated the evil phantom, and she fell after a long fight with a supposed hole through her stomach and an idiotic grin on her face. And somewhere in between, someone had the idea of quarterstaff-combat. Serena decided to watch, but she did look pretty stupid (everyone except James thought) as she sat on the huge terrace, with no one around her, sipping lemonade while everyone else was having a good time killing themselves on the grass.  
All too soon, the summer was over. Lily had gone back to Lucius' for a while, but his parents thought it the height of impropriety to brawl outside, so she didn't have nearly as much fun. She almost succeeded in drawing Lucius and Severus to Eva's house, but at the last minute, they refused, and Lily spent the rest of the holidays at the large, Versaillian/Notre Dame castle-like mansion. All too soon, however, a cloud of owls had arrived at the breakfast on the porch, dropping off each person's respective Hogwarts letter. Lily's landed in her milk jug, and she had a hard time deciphering what it said.   
Still, everyone was excited and ready for the trip to Diagon Alley, which they had planned for the second-to-last week before school. Dressed moderately respectably (not in the coats of mail, Lincoln Green, cutoffs, and bathing suits they had been wearing), everyone was assembled in the entrance hall, waiting patiently as each group of five, armed with wand and money, stepped into the Floo powdered fire.  
They emerged in the fireplace of the Leaky Cauldron, jumping hastily aside so as to let the group after them appear in the fireplace without knocking them over. Finally, they were all assembled in the large doorway and alley leading to Diagon Alley. Eva's mother, after giving a few hurried directions ("don't buy anything illegal, be back here by five, and keep out of Knockturn Alley!"), had set off for a café, leaving them to do as they wished. The first move of most of the group was to bustle into Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor, and they quickly swamped the small store. The rest, which included Lily, Eva, and Amanda, were looking for school supplies. In Flourish and Blotts, Lily and the rest pulled out their lists, making the two clerks and the manager quite busy, waiting on almost twenty people. Lily's was a bit longer than the other ones:   
  
_The Standard Book of Spells, Grade Four   
Defense Against the Dark Arts; Curses and Deflections   
Magical Plants of the Greenhouse   
Divination: The Advanced Basics   
Simmerings and Swellings: The Potions Guide   
Charms and Hexes, An Intermediate Level   
Runes and Translations, Level II   
Anatomy of Magical Creatures: Grade One and Two   
  
Students taking Anatomy of Magical Creatures will need:   
  
Complete small dissection kit   
Anesthetic–4Br7SgO4Z, 6 mol   
Large apron   
  
If you so choose, you may bring along a larger dissection kit. This, however, is not required and the absence thereof will not be penalized.   
  
Lily was the third in line for her books, so she got out of the shop relatively quickly. Once outside, she headed straight for the shop labeled Agra's Science Accessories ._


	26. Back at Hogwarts

It was a pretty nice store; shelves along the walls were stacked with millions of small boxes, bottles, and different folded pieces of cloth. If you held your nose, the store was positively charming, but it was a bit impossible to shut out the odor of old fish. There was no clerk around to help, so Lily had to find her things herself. By the time she had located the anesthetic and dissection kit, however, the store was filled with several others, all chattering excitedly about some thing or another. She did catch one phrase, however, and she gathered that they were in here to look for a chemical that, when melted, had some properties similar to sugar, in the sense that it turned very alcoholic.   
Lily's purse was lighter by seven Galleons when she left the store, and she was ready for something to eat. Quickly locating Amanda and Abigail, who were standing in line at a frozen lemonade booth, she moved over to them.   
"Hi! You got everything?"   
Amanda frowned. "With everyone crowding like that? I didn't even get inside the store. You?"   
"Well– I got my books and Anatomy supplies. But that's it. What's in here?" she questioned as the line in front of them moved and she could take a good look at whatever was for sale.   
Abigail nodded at the display model. "Frozen lemonade statues."   
Lily frowned. "But they'd melt and get your hands all sticky before you got a chance to eat them!"   
"No. They won't."   
"Won't what?"   
"Melt. These don't. Which is why we're going for 'em."   
Lily nodded. She saw sense in that. "Hold on. I'm getting some too." Fishing some Sickles out of her bag, she gratefully bit into a frozen figure greatly resembling a pretzel.  
When they left the stand to go sit on some benches, Lily's Flourish and Blotts bag burst. They had to go scurrying around after the volumes, and it took some time before they could fix up the rip and continue. But, just as Lily stood up, she crashed into something, causing her to trip backwards over the books, open up the tear, and take the skin off of her hands.   
"JAMES POTTER, WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING!"   
He let go of Serena's arm. "Oops–sorry–didn't see you. Here–let me help." In a matter of seconds, he had pulled out his wand and had tapped the torn cloth, causing it to spring together, better than new. Helping her up from the rough cobblestones, he kept on apologizing profusely as he caught sight of the torn knee of her jeans and the badly torn knee underneath.   
"I'm really sorry–really–I just wasn't paying any attention at all to anything else–you all right?"   
"Fine. Is this a habit of yours?"   
"What?"   
"Every time we meet here, you have the annoying urge to knock me down."   
"What–I guess you're right."   
"I am."   
Serena interrupted with a slight pull on James' sleeve. "James, dear, I've got to go get some things–you don't mind?"   
Lily smiled sweetly. "Of course not. But we'll be sure to miss you terribly."   
Serena scowled at Lily, smiled at James, and turned on her heel, heading into the store selling what they called 'girl accessories'. Lily called it stage makeup.  
James stared after her, shaking his head, then turned back to Lily. "So–you sure you all right?"   
Lily tipped her head quizzically. "What would you say if I said no?"   
"Well–are you?"   
"Look down."   
He did so.   
"At my knee, you idiot!"   
"Oh. Oops."   
"Does that answer your question?" It should. The skinned knee and torn pants leg had rapidly turned into a freely bleeding something resembling a waterfall. It had already stained her shoes red, as well as the cobblestones beneath her. James frowned. "That doesn't look so good. Come on–we'll go get help."   
"Excuse me?"   
"Come on! My aunt's best friend works here–get up!" He yanked her towards the back of Fortescue's, banging on the back door and calling a rather grumpy-looking witch to it. Her frown cleared, however, as soon as she saw James.   
"James dear! How are you? Come in, come in, and I'll bet we can fixe you up with something nice and cold…dear, do you still like that mango bat kind? Oh, heavens, I almost didn't see your little friend. Dear, how are you–Oh, dear!" She gave an odd little screech at the sight of Lily's red-stained jeans. "Oh, dear,…well, we'd better get that fixed up. In you go, then!" She shepherded them inside, shooing James into the bathroom for bandages, helping Lily onto a footstool and finally sending James to go help out behind the counter, since the shop was packed.   
Rolling the jeans up, the old lady washed the red stains away from her leg, and then she bent over it, squinting. Lily had been afraid of this.   
The old lady peered up. "Dear, there's no wound here!"   
Lily bit her lip. "I know."   
"Then where–"   
"I had some fake blood in my bag and it got smashed?" Lily said, phrasing this more as a question than a statement.   
The witch, to her surprise, grinned widely, showing a row of false teeth. "Trying to get back at Jamesie, were you, dear?"   
Lily wanted to smile. "Yes, ma'am. Sort of. That is–"   
The old lady interrupted her with an understanding nod of the head. "I know all about that, dear. All about that kind of thing. Why, when I was young, I used to play tricks like that on old Billy all the time! But don't worry; he'll marry you anyway. If he really loves you, then…"   
Lily was having a hard time keeping the smile pasted onto her face; she suspected she might have to drill it on. She was also having a hard time sitting on her fist; it kept moving in the direction of those tempting false teeth.

After binding up Lily's 'wound', the old lady hobbled to what Lily supposed was the door to the store and came back with a large waffle cone of tiger's-claw ice cream with false eyeballs made out of a sort of crème on top. It looked pretty disgusting, but if you went by the smell, it was quite good. James, with his cone of mango bat, was looking at her as if daring her to lick it. Glaring at him, she looked down at the orange mass.   
"Lil, scared to lick eyeballs?"   
"Excuse you?"   
"You're scared to eat that, aren't you?"   
Lily didn't answer. She simply brought the waffle cone up to her mouth and bit half of the protruding orange cream off, swallowing the false eyeballs and ignoring the pounding ice cream headache. James raised his eyebrows appreciatively. "Not bad! You know," he added to the old witch, "I wasn't expecting her to eat that much. Still–Lil, your knee all right?"   
"Couldn't be better. Let's go. I need to do some more shopping."   
He groaned. "Not you, too! I'm starting to get sick of makeup stores!"   
Lily pressed her lips together hard, concealing a smirk. "You don't know me very well, Potter. Meet me in front of here at two."   
He shrugged. "Sure. Whatever."   
"And I get to try out what I bought on you."   
"No! At least, not the makeup!"   
Lily nodded. "Fine. Not that part. But all the rest?"   
"Can't get much worse than that. All right. You sure you're all right?"   
"I want that in writing."   
He stared at her. "Sure–whatever." Ripping a piece of parchment out of his new Divination book, he scribbled a short contract on it. "Happy?"   
Lily stuffed the slip into her pocked. "Yes."   
"And you're sure you're all right?"   
"Potter, you ask me that one more time and you won't be."   
"What?"   
"All right."   
"All right what?"  
After herding James towards Quality Quidditch Supplies, Lily wound her way through the masses of people to Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop, picking up a fair bit of Apparel candy, Dungbombs, and Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start, No-Heat Fireworks. Just out of spite, she also went next door to a store selling dress robes and wigs. Picking out a fluffy blond wig and frilly light pink robes, she ran into Sirius as she was leaving.   
"Lily! What're you doing in here?"   
"Why?"   
"Lily Evans, buying dress robes?"   
"They're not for me."   
"Not for you? Who, then–Petunia?"   
"Your very best friend."   
Sirius was baffled. "Lily, Serena's not my friend!"   
Lily snorted. "Not for her, idiot! I wouldn't spend a cent on her–well, unless you paid me to. I'm telling you–these are for your very best friend."   
Sirius shook his head in disbelief, but, thirty minutes later, he understood.  
Walking down the street–well, more parading than walking–were two figures. One was perched, sidesaddle, on a broomstick that was floating about a foot and a half from the ground. That figure, who was wearing bluejeans with a ripped knee and blood-soaked pants leg and a black T-shirt, was also holding an interesting sort of buggy whip. The other figure wasn't familiar to Sirius at all, at least, not till it got up close. Dressed in the frilliest pale pink robes he had ever seen, a blond girl with hair too poofy for comfort was tied to the front of the broomstick. A necklace of Dungbombs and firecrackers was around her neck, and she looked extremely tentative. The whole thing rather resembled a horse and buggy, except that the blond girl wasn't a horse and wasn't a girl, either.   
"James? Have you lost your mind?"   
James, with the blond wig perched on top of scraggles of black that was peeking out from underneath and forming sweaty bangs, scowled.   
"Don't say a WORD."

"I won't. I don't even know you. Lily, hi, nice to see you. And who is this charming young lady here?"   
He held out a hand and bowed ridiculously as Lily alighted with an affected graceful air. "Mr. Black, how nice to see you. I have acquired a new mare recently, though she does not please me as well as my last. I am thinking of selling her to Mr. Malfoy–what do you think of that?" James snorted with ferocity, while Sirius nodded slowly, stroking an invisible beard. "It would certainly be a wise move. Mr. Malfoy will give you a good price. Let me tie up your steed–excuse me, mare–for you." Taking the reins out of her hands, he firmly tied James to a bench, leaving him to the full scrutiny of the passers-by, all of which were hooting with laughter. The next few weeks passed rather hurriedly. James still hadn't forgiven Lily for doing that to him, but, as he had given her his written word, and a very clumsy one at that, she could now force him to wear anything she had bought that day and he couldn't do a thing about it, as she could always send that piece of parchment to his mother, who was very strict on all that had to do with signing names to contracts. James was more scared of his mother than of anyone or anything else–she was the nicest person in the world, but a fury when she was angry.The holiday fun, however, hadn't let Lily forget her mother.   
Every night when she was trying to go to sleep, the pictures of the funeral and the years before Hogwarts began to dance around in her mind, and every morning she'd wake up with a swollen, red face. However, during the events of the day, the lighthearted brawls and swimming and who knows what else drove that out of her head. But now, when she was alone in a compartment on the Hogwarts Express, she had time to think. She knew she would never see her mother again, would never have a chance to, not unless she dug up her grave, which was morbid even for Lily. And now they would never be together again–and she hadn't gotten to say goodbye. Swallowing with difficulty the lump in her throat, Lily pulled on her Hogwarts robes. It was only twelve, but she still drew all of the curtains, closed the compartment door, and went into a fitful doze, waking every hour, and expecting to see someone who she, the next instant, realized she never would see again. 

The train stopped when it was dark outside. It was only in the last few minutes that Lily noticed that noone had come in to visit her–she had spent her time absently brushing and re-brushing her hair with her mother's grandmother's silver filigree comb. Heavy-hearted and depressed, she pulled out the first Jungle Book volume and stepped off of the train at the Hogsmeade station, sheltering the book from the light drizzle. Climbing into a carriage smelling of moth balls, she arranged her robes around her and turned to the chapter about the Red Dog, still alone.   
When the horseless carriages arrived at Hogwarts, she let herself drift along with the crowd to the Great Hall, sitting down next to Abigail and Sirius. She barely noticed as the first years were crowded in and the hat sang its song–the same tune as the year before this–but she did look up when Professor McGonagall picked up a scroll and started reading off students' names, instead of the hat doing that. Puzzled, Lily pulled Sirius' sleeve.   
"Why isn't the hat calling out the names?"   
Sirius turned around, perplexed, but then his frown cleared. "Of course–you weren't here at the last Sorting. Well–you remember what James did your first year here? At the Sorting, I mean."   
Lily smiled–a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Of course I do. That hat was beating him around the ears and–well, anyway, go on."   
Professor McGonagall and the hat interrupted. "Hitchmough, Bathilda!"   
"HUFFLEPUFF!"   
"So, Professor Dumbledore didn't want to have that happen again. This is a new measure."   
"Oh." Lily nodded. "I see." They turned to the stage in time to see "Hix, Rupert," become a Gryffindor.   
The feast, wonderful as usual, was a bit wasted on Lily, who spent her dinnertime with half of a baked potato and her book. Sirius and Abigail were urging her to eat, but the idea of two hundred dogs of the Dekkan being drowned in a pool, with their bodies and large, dark rings plopping up sort of ruined her appetite. She would have explained this, but she didn't want to spoil anyone else's.   
They went up to Gryffindor Tower some time later, the new password (Clam chowder) was passed around, and very soon, everyone was busy in the common room, talking loudly or playing a variety of games. Lily, strangely, although she had had several naps on the train, was dead tired and went to her dormitory as soon as possible, falling asleep before she could get her socks off.  
Lily woke the next morning as soon as the sun pushed its rays over the horizon. At five in the morning, the dormitory was filled with gentle snores and wheezes, so she was extra quiet as she pulled a fresh set of clothes out of her dormitory, along with a set of Hogwarts robes.   
Slipping quietly into the bathroom, she changed into the emerald green shirt and jazz pants her mother had sent her. The burns on her arm and back were still evident, and she had tried covering them up over the holidays by using bandages on her arm and always having something on her lower back. But one time when she had been in the pool, the bandages had slipped off, and Eva had been shocked by the black marks. Lily had found no explanation for them, so she had stayed out of her friend's way till Eva forgot.   
Half-heartedly pulling her soft, silky hair about her face and pushing loose ends behind her ears, she emerged, first slipping into her black robes. Downstairs, an elf was scurrying out of the common room after lighting the fires, so Lily was able to bury herself in Robin Hood in peace. Of course, the word 'peace' was invented before James Potter came along, and no one had seemed to allow for that creature when they made that word. Whenever James Potter was within a one hundred mile radius of somewhere, there was never, ever peace. At least, peace as it was defined in the dictionary.  
He came romping down the dormitory stairs, with an undeniable air of carelessness. Lily looked at him questioningly. He wasn't aware yet that she was up; since she had curled up in an armchair that had a dark blanket draped over it, and so she blended in nicely. It was only when he flung himself on the floor in front of the fire and stretched out his hands, to warm them, that he noticed her presence.   
"Oh–you're here? Didn't notice you."   
"I realize that."   
"Well, geez–you don't have to be so mean! I just said hi!"   
"I know you did."   
"Well, then, what's wrong? If anyone has a right to be angry, it's me."   
"That was your own fault. You didn't have to sign that thing."   
"Yeah, and you took advantage of the fact that my mother would hold me to it. Wh–what's wrong?"   
His face drew together in concerned lines as hers saddened and grew pale. Lily had only heard the words 'my mother', and she felt a sharp wrench somewhere in her chest. He had a mother, one that would hug him and forgive every little thing he ever could and did do wrong, one that would comfort or help in any way she could. As if it were a picture, the image of children being hugged and kissed goodbye at train stations jumped to mind. She hadn't noticed, back at King's Cross, how many parents there were, how many proud and sorrowful parents saying goodbye to their children, who were squirming to get free.   
Lily had no idea her face had relaxed from its tautness and softened into a grieving sort of half-smile, the eyes half-closed, staring but looking through whatever it was.   
"Is something wrong?"   
She didn't answer, and he took her by one shoulder, shaking it. "Lily!"   
Startled out of her thoughts, for an instant, James looked in two bottomless eyes, with naked fear and loss and hurt in them. Then, as if a curtain had dropped over the pupils, they returned to the ones he knew, forest-green, mocking, with a sort of shine to them.   
"I'm fine. Don't ever do that again."   
He peered closely at her, at the moist area where her eyelashes met whenever she blinked. "It's your mother, isn't it?"   
She whipped her head around to look at him, and he had the uncomfortable feeling that she was pulling his thoughts out one by one, and examining every particle. What she had really been thinking–what she had been afraid of was that he might know everything about Tom–about what had happened that summer. The glance he had given her after he had startled her out of her ponderings had seemed as if he knew everything, had pulled away the coverings that hid her innermost secrets. But, after looking at his slightly puzzled, open countenance, she was satisfied and her fears receded. Then, with a smile that didn't reach her eyes, she dropped her head to one side.

"I miss her. You don't know how much I did–how much I loved her."   
He nodded. "I think I do."   
"You couldn't possibly. You never knew anyone–anyone quite like her."   
"No–but I know you."   
Her head gave the little characteristic tilt again, as if she were comparing two vases she wanted to purchase. "What difference does that make?"   
"Plenty. Everyone says you're so like her–and so, in a way, I did know her. I think everyone here would be devastated if you died."   
His speech had sounded sincere, but it called to mind the aggressive faces of the Gryffindors after she had allegedly attacked Serena last year, and she pulled away.   
"Don't think you have to flatter me. Don't even think that you have to try to comfort me–nothing you ever do will make a difference. I couldn't care less what this whole stupid school thinks about me, and the sooner you learn that, the better."   
The anger and hate on her face had startled him greatly, especially as he had no idea where the attack came from. Like a wounded cobra, she had launched herself at him, spitting all the venom she could at him, and rejoicing if one of her drops of poison touched him and made him cringe. That was one of the moments when he started to understand some of her–some part of her that she kept veiled most of the time, and only let out when she couldn't help it.   
She was capable of so much anger and hate–of so many emotions that had been detestable in others. But in her–when they emerged, it gave her the look of someone supernatural–of someone who didn't belong here and was fighting tooth and nail to be let out of her cage. And this frightened him, for he had no idea what she was trying to escape from but knew it was something even the bravest would shrink from.   
She was one of the bravest people he knew, though he had no idea where that had come from, but it had settled in his mind and wouldn't be dislodged. He tried to, but it stayed there, firmly, as though it had been there from the first time he had met her.   
James would have died rather than admit this to anyone, but that ferocity, that wildness, that figure of a panther about to pounce–it intrigued him, as if he could never find out what exactly she was, as though she was a mystery to all of mankind–a valuable jewel, locked inside her savage, fickle, easily bored mind and heart. And she was so independent–it seemed that no one was ever to find the key.  
It was six-thirty in the morning, but Lily figured that, as breakfast was usually served at seven, it wouldn't hurt if she got there a bit early. Dawdling on purpose and going through several roundabout corridors, talking to the Gryffindor ghost–Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, but everyone called him Nearly Headless Nick, as his head was still attached to his neck by a half-inch of skin– she reached the Great Hall and only had to wait ten minutes before the tables were filled with food. Hungry–well, actually, more voracious than hungry–Lily attacked her plate, filled with buttered toast, eggs, bacon, oatmeal with cinnamon on top, and poppy-seed rolls. Around seven-thirty, the Great Hall was half-full, and Professor McGonagall went up and down the tables, handing out schedules. Lily's dropped on top of the book propped in front of her just as Eva slid into the seat next to her.   
"Oh, good, schedules! Lemme see yours." Not waiting for a nod of agreement, she pulled it off of the book and studied it as she heaped her own plate.   
"Darn, you're lucky–I hear Study of Ancient Runes is pretty good. You've got that first thing, by the way. And isn't that beautiful–you've got second with the Slytherins–why they have to follow us around in Potions I don't know, but I wish they wouldn't…umm–wait–you're taking Anatomy? Oh, right…" She broke off into a series of snorts mixed with giggles. "Lily, look at this!"   
As ordered, Lily took the schedule. "What?"   
"You've got Anatomy right before lunch tomorrow and right after lunch on Friday!"   
"So?"   
"You're either going to be throwing up in that class or not eating anything!"   
Lily calmly tucked her schedule away. "Wimp. You know me better than that."   
"Who knows who better than what?" Sirius had let himself fall into the seat on the other side of Lily, and had coolly taken the schedule from her pocket as his own landed right in front of him. "You get first period with me–yippee–we all know how much fun that's going to be!" He gave a frighteningly large, sarcastic grin, but snapped back to normal after getting the weird looks from the rest of the table. "Oh, man, do we really have to ruin our first day back like this?"   
"Like what?"   
"We have Divination last. And right before lunch Wednesday, too. This is going to be a nightmare…"   
Lily rolled her eyes, making a mental note to bring along extra reading material to that class.   
They stepped into the Study of Ancient Runes class at nine. The room was interesting; it was filled with what looked like ancient scrolls posted all over the walls. When Professor Sartan stepped into the room, she didn't bother with calling roll, as usual; she simply gave them each an alphabet of some unknown language and told them to figure out which one it was by their knowledge of the scrolls pasted on the walls. They had a fun lesson, and, as this class was usually noisy, it provided ample opportunity for talking.  
"Lily, you finally decided to do something with your hair?"   
Lily shrugged. "Yeah–Mother didn't like it when I stopped, so–"   
He cut her off. "I understand. Really."   
She nodded her head in relief. "Thanks."   
He squinted at her. "Lily?"   
"Hum?"   
"You haven't gotten over your mother's death at all, have you?"   
With the same unveiled eyes that she had glared at James with in the common room, she now looked at Sirius, except that, instead of anger, sorrow and hurt was staring at him. "I miss her so much. I never thought I would–I never thought she was anything more than an annoying parent after I went here. And now–now–" She turned to her alphabet. "Now I know better, and it's too late."   
Sirius put an arm around her shoulders, and with a start discovered that the very nerves in her were shaking, shaking uncontrollably. But at his touch she calmed down, breathing normally. That was the best indication he had ever received of the amount she loved and missed her mother. He ignored for the time being the snickering looks that were thrown at them, the whisperings and gossip he knew would be all over the school by lunchtime. And Lily was too drawn inside herself to notice.   
That day at lunch, she did notice the fingers pointing at her and Sirius, but, as she had told James that morning in the common room, she honestly couldn't care less about what the school thought about her. They had condemned her forever simply by being–well, the nicest word for that was 'different', strange, and impulsive, not caring what she looked like, and acting quite the opposite of a traditional girl. And she simply had responded to that by mocking the so-called etiquette she was supposed to follow, and, needless to say, no one had like that very much.   
Abigail sat down next to her, nervously looking from her to Sirius, and looking quite like a sort of goldfish, Lily thought, but she kept her comment to herself.  
"What? Is there an ax stuck in the back of my head or something?"   
Abigail shook her head. "Lily, is it true, what they're saying about you?"   
"Many things are, many things aren't, and chances are this is one of the aren'ts. What is it this time?"   
"That you're going out with Sirius."   
Sirius rolled his eyes, and Lily was overcome with an attack of mocking laughter. "Is that the best they could come up with? Yes. That was one of the aren'ts."   
"Oh." Abigail looked a bit disappointed. "Oh." She turned to her salad.   
Professor Zimmerman, as usual, was a bit clueless as to the extents to which James and Sirius would go to disrupt the lesson, so she gave them a free period while she tried to fix the door to her office, which kept swinging open and shut, ignoring the charms Professor Zimmerman was perplexedly casting as she tried to make it stay shut. So they got to spend an hour and a half of whatever they wanted to do; in Lily's case, this was her Potions and Study of Ancient Runes homework; in the case of the rest of the class, it was trying to squeeze out of Sirius what really happened in first period. His mouth stayed shut, however, and it was rather amusing to watch the disappointed and angry faces of the girls in the classroom that assumed he was simply not saying anything because he was too embarrassed to admit it. Sirius knew that denials would do no good, and, wisely, he refrained from doing so.   
Divination went wonderfully well, for a change. Professor Trelawney had come down with a cold and had sent in a substitute, who knew absolutely nothing of Divination and only told them to answer the section review in their book.   
Next day, Lily was surprisingly excited all through Transfiguration. Sirius was puzzled as to why, but his unspoken question was answered when she pushed her schedule over to him and he saw the title of her next period, which she had underlined and surrounded several times: Anatomy of Magical Creatures.  
Lily stepped into the Anatomy room, which had formerly been an unused dungeon, but now was outfitted with a dozen lab tables, chairs, charts tacked up all over the walls, a large cabinet in the corner, locked, and an elongated sink, about eight feet long, with two gargoyle spouts serving as faucets, and several hundred spikes sticking out from the wall above the sink, serving as a drying rack for utensils. With an excited smile on her face, Lily slipped into her seat. She did frown a bit as the other half of the class came in, among them James Potter. The class wasn't just made up of Gryffindors; they had people from all four houses, though all of them were fourth years. Lily's frown intensified as James took a seat at her lab table, somewhat near the middle and off to the side, near the wall.   
"What're you doing here?"   
"Sitting."   
"I can tell. Go sit somewhere else."   
"Too late. Places all taken."   
Lily would have humphed in response, but the entrance of a teacher made her quickly change her mind and pull out her Anatomy book.   
The teacher that stepped into the room was tall, with dark hair hanging down to his shoulders and navy blue robes. He seemed to be rather sluggish, so the class was surprised at the speed at which he drifted over to the board, picked up a piece of chalk, and wrote his name.   
"Professor Maar. That would be me. Now–anyone ever taken Anatomy before?"   
No one raised his or her hand.   
"No one? Shame…we're going to have to start out with frogs, then. All right–" he clapped his hands once–"turn to page xii in your books."   
They obeyed quickly, and when they did so, they found on it a complete drawing of the nervous, digestive, and skeletal systems of the frog.   
"Everyone there? Good. Hang on just a minute–" He moved over to the cabinet in the front of the room, unlocked it deftly, and pulled out a flat box and a white plastic bag. Placing everything on his desk, he opened the box to reveal an elaborate dissection kit. The bag held two halves of a freeze-dried frog.   
Professor Maar looked up at the class. "I might say now that if there is anyone in here who cannot stand looking at dead animals, they are free to leave now. As we advance, you will be looking at more complex creatures, some of them close to human, if not human. I am not sure on that point–I will need to contact the body farm for permission to use their subjects and settle some things with the Ministry of Magic. But I say again, if you do not wish to do this, you may leave now.  
No one stood up, and Professor Maar smiled in satisfaction. "All right–everyone come here. You don't need to bring anything except something to bear down on, something for taking notes with, and parchment. You're taking notes."   
Quickly, the class circled around his desk, taking notes frantically as they watched their teacher take apart the frog, which he did swiftly, as he did everything else. He lifted almost every particle of the frog, holding it up for the class to see and explaining its importance and jobs. And, forty-five minutes later, he had re-seated the class and given each lab table one frog. They were to sketch each part that he had commented on, from the front and back. Lily had to lift the brain and heart and other things when they were to draw the spinal cord, as she had a rather queasy partner.   
Satisfied, she went to lunch after cleaning up. Sirius and Amanda attacked her the instant she came in.   
"So, how was the class?"   
"Very nice. Interesting, too. We had a practical lesson and started with frogs. I have the funny feeling James didn't like it."


	27. Chapter XXVII

"James signed up for that?"   
"You didn't know? He did, and I'll bet you anything he's wishing he didn't. He didn't like lifting up the–"   
"STOP!"   
"Geez, Amanda, calm down!"   
"I'm about to eat. Shut up–please," she added as an afterthought.   
"Sure. What's for lunch?"   
James came into the Great Hall, looking a bit sick. "Lily, you're really callous. Do you know, Sirius, she practically cut up that whole stinking frog without wrinkling her nose? There's something wrong there."   
"There is."   
James was puzzled. "Lil–why?"   
"If you sign up for a class, you should expect that. I think it's a bit strange that someone that volunteered for a class would come out of it looking sick to their stomach."   
Sirius laughed. "She has a point, James!"   
James scowled. "Shut up!"   
The next Anatomy lesson was held on Friday, after lunch, and it was probably a good thing that they didn't have a practical lesson. They were simply reading the preface and summarizing it, which prevented many trips to the bathroom because people were throwing up. They were going to be working on a fetal pig next Tuesday, Professor Maar told them, and he wasn't going to be letting anyone out to go throw up. If they wanted to do that, don't bother coming, but he wasn't letting them out.   
He might be very strict, Lily thought, but he was likable and a very good teacher.  
That weekend, Lily, Diana, Serena, Elspeth, and Abigail were awakened by a loud crash and a whizzing at six-thirty in the morning. When they managed to tear their curtains aside and look at the room, they found a hole in the window and a Bludger rocketing out of the hole in the glass. Running to the broken pane, stepping nimbly over the shards, Lily peered out of the window, looking straight into the face of Nigel Patil, the Gryffindor team captain, who was hovering at eye level on his broom.   
"Oops."   
"I should say so! What on earth was that doing in here?"   
Nigel grinned. "Joseph!"   
The clumsy Gryffindor Beater, Joseph DeVonn, flew forward just as Serena joined Lily at the window.   
"Was that you?"   
"Yeah..."   
Serena shook her head. "You'd better be glad I'm too tired to go for my wand. As is, though–She reached back, and, before Joseph knew what was happening, had slapped him, hard, across the mouth. "Don't EVER do that again!" Not waiting for an answer, she slammed the window shut, making some shards that hadn't fallen yet fly onto the grounds, pulled the curtains, and stomped into bed. "I'm going back to sleep. And if ANYONE disturbs me, they're going to regret it!"   
Abigail and Lily glanced at each other, and rolled their eyes. Lily walked over to the window, yanked the curtains open, letting in the light, and leaned far out. "You're staying away from this window!" she yelled at the retreating Quidditch team.   
Laughing at Serena's enraged countenance, Lily pulled out her fencing team T-shirt and a pair of jeans, and, after pulling on a pair of interesting socks with Coke bottles printed all over them and her sneakers, she coolly got out her brush and stepped in front of the dormitory's mirror, ignoring the whispering Serena, Diana, and Elspeth. Pulling her hair back into a ponytail, she fastened it with a black scrunchie and got into her Hogwarts robes. Lily grabbed her school bag, partly completed homework, and Hamlet, and went down to the common room, Abigail following her.   
They finished up their History of Magic essay, and, by the time they were finished with the Divination questions and answers, it was eight o'clock and past time for breakfast.   
When they stepped into the Great Hall, they were a bit surprised. Obviously, they had missed something, for the tables were a mess, food was everywhere, people were yelling wildly, and Professor McGonagall was handing out detentions right and left.   
Lily slipped into a seat next to Sirius, who was one of the only ones not yelling. "What happened?"  
"Food fight."   
"I can tell. But how did it start?"   
"Well–we had Quidditch tryouts at the end of last year to Ashley Thomas–that Chaser on our team. Well, one of the people that tried out and didn't get picked has a brother over in Slytherin, so the Slytherins started attacking us, saying something about discrimination against people with Slytherin siblings, and it sorta took off."   
"Ah."   
"It wasn't pretty."   
"I can tell! But who did get picked?"   
"Sixth year. Rebecca Oxley. She's not bad, but–well, this might not turn out so well."   
"I can tell."   
That Tuesday, tension was high between the Houses, and the Anatomy, Study of Ancient Runes (which they took with the Ravenclaws), Potions (with the Slytherins), and Herbology (with Hufflepuff) lessons were getting to be rather distanced. Each professor was trying his or her hardest to make the students get over this, but with no success. There were two groups of students in each House: those siding with a different House and those siding with their own. After hearing both sides of the story, however, Lily had formed her own, one-woman group: where no one cared either which way.   
No one was too happy about that except the teachers, and in second period, before lunch, where every House had representatives, people had started flinging naval cords of fetal pigs across the room, causing Professor Maar to lose his usual coolness and give them extra homework. That didn't help any, and everyone left the room with jinxes sprouting out of the end of his or her wand.   
It was only when Lily got hit with a Devil's Ear hex mixed with a temporary blindness one that she snapped and started attacking everyone in the direction the jinx had come from, sending several people to the hospital wing, among them Gryffindors. That sort of made her even more of an outcast among the students, not that she really cared, but some of her friends did.

Everyone was terribly relieved when Halloween started looming up ahead and people could mask the tentacles sprouting on their eyelids by saying that this was their costume. Normally, no one at Hogwarts dressed up, but this year no one had said they couldn't, so it was pretty much public that each House was having their own private party, with costumes and house-elf and Hogsmeade food. The teachers had no idea, and if they did, they pretended not to, for this took some of the tension away, as people were working on costumes. The theme that had been decided on was famous couples, with each couple to do a tiny skit, and Lily could have guessed Serena's and James' costumes in her sleep–they had decided to go as Romeo and Juliet. Remus, after ascertaining that the full moon wasn't on Halloween, had asked Elspeth to masquerade with him as Queen Guenevere, while he went as Sir Launcelot. That, at least, showed a bit of imagination. Lily wasn't planning to attend, since she didn't intend to go as Narcissus and didn't think she could find anyone willing to go with her. And when even Peter and Abigail had decided to go as Robin Hood and Marian, she knew she'd not be asked. Not that she really minded–it was to be expected.   
As Halloween drew to only a week away, Lily had already asked her father to send her earplugs so she could block out the sounds of the party below her, as she was planning to stay in her dormitory. She was sitting moodily in the windowseat, trying fruitlessly to ignore Diana, Elspeth, and Serena squealing over the dress that Serena's mother had sent her–scarlet, with gold thread glittering everywhere, and on the front, the skirts drew aside to show a creamy white satin petticoat. Alisande was contentedly snacking on an Owl Treat, and, just then, another own rudely shoved her aside.   
Lily jumped up. The newcomer had a small envelope tied to its leg, and, in a familiar scrawl, it had her name on it. Soothing Alisande's ruffled feathers, she untied the letter from its leg and slit it open.   
_  
Lily,   
  
Hey, meet me down in the common room…uhh, right now's good. Bring a bunch of ideas.  
_  
Lily simply raised her eyebrows. Well then. Still, she stood up and left the dormitory, a bit puzzled.   
She stepped into the common room, which was relatively empty. Moving towards the fire, she sat down next to the sender.   
"Bring a bunch of ideas for what?"   
"Oh, hi." Sirius whirled around. "Say, you haven't been asked to that Halloween thing, have you?"   
Lily just stared at him. "The outcast, invited to a party? You should know better."   
"Humph."   
"Hey, that's my phrase!"   
"I stole it. Anyway, you wouldn't consider going with me, would you?"   
"I don't know. Let me consult my other self. Lily, Sirius just asked you to the Halloween party. What should we say?"   
"I don't know, Lily, what do you think?"   
"Lily, if we don't say yes, we'll spend our evening in our dormitory with earplugs stuffed into our ears."   
"And if we go downstairs, we'll spend our evening in the common room with earplugs stuffed into our ears."   
"Lily, I think we should go."   
"What's this all about?"   
"Oh, hi, Lily. Didn't see you there. Sirius has just asked us to go to the party on Halloween. What do you think?"   
"Well, Lily and Lily, we really should say yes then. Who knows–we're probably last resorts."   
"All right."   
Lily turned back to Sirius, who was staring at her as if she was a dangerous explosive with the lighted fuse only an inch away from the dynamite. "Lily and Lily said I should go. So I'm overruled, two to one."   
"Two to one what?"   
"Don't mind me. I'm just being schizophrenic. Anyway, what should we go as? If you say Romeo and Juliet, I will scream."   
"Don't worry; that wasn't anywhere near my mind. James and Serena are going like that, anyway."   
"I know. She just got her dress delivered."   
"Ah. Well, any ideas?"   
"I'll also scream if you suggest Cupid and Psyche."   
"Well–how about Antony and Cleopatra?"   
"You idiot. I don't look the least bit Egyptian."   
"You can pretend and see what happens," he suggested.   
"Or not."   
"Well–you want to go as someone nice or evil?"   
"Sirius, you're talking to me here."   
"All right. How about Cinderella and Prince Charming–I'm joking!" The addition did him no good, and Lily swatted him with a sofa cushion. "Fine. Fine. I give. James and Serena?"  
"You want me to masquerade as a Barbie?"   
"You could try."   
"No."   
He shrugged. "It would have gotten a laugh. We could try me and a Coke bottle," he said hopefully.   
"I'm not stuffing myself into a glass bottle. Get Sirius, serious."   
"Get what?"   
"Aah! You're making me talk blarney. You stop, and I'll stop."   
"That works. Macbeth and his wife?"   
"That's not bad. We'll keep that in mind."   
"Abigail Williams and John Proctor?"   
"I'm not going as an insane adulteress! Anyway, John wasn't really evil."   
"Uhh…let's see…evil, mean, famous–Lily?"

"Um?"   
"Do you have a sort of pre-French Revolution outfit?"   
"I can get one. Why?"   
"You've read The Three Musketeers, haven't you?"   
"Of course."   
"Milady Clarik and the Comte de Rochefort?"   
Lily's eyes started to widen and sparkle. Her lips curved up into a smile, and he knew he had picked something that caught her interest.   
"So, you're willing to go as a traitorous murderess?"   
"You'd be just as bad. Mother played her in theaters once!"   
Sirius smiled. "We'll do that, then? But can you fit into her dress?"   
Lily tossed her head. "Sirius, dear, Mother was short. And I have grown. If I don't fit, I'll wear platforms strapped to my shoes and walk like that. I'm not giving up this chance!"   
He grinned and gave her a short hug. "Good. I thought that might make you happy. I'll try to get my dad to send me lots of black clothing. See you–well, later!"   
Lily nodded. "See you, too!" She jumped up and ran upstairs, scratching a note to her father with amazing speed and sending Alisande on her journey.  
Friday was pandemonium, and it was a miracle that none of the teachers had found out anything. No one paid any attention in Anatomy, and Lily ended up putting the heart of her niffler where the brain was supposed to go. Professor Maar, in an unusual spurt of generosity, had decided to let all the marks for that day not count, so everyone ended up in a pretty good mood. Their last period was Potions, and Professor Cauldwell, taking his usual nap, failed to notice that everyone was excitedly comparing notes on what they were going to wear. Well, all except Lily. She had no wish to disclose what she was going to be going as, and Sirius, patterning his manners on hers, also pretended not to want to.   
The Halloween feast was marvelous, with live bats fluttering about jack-o-lanterns placed at intervals on the tables. And hardly anyone noticed that about a hundred of the bats were missing from the Gryffindor table when they stood up, but Lily had noticed, and she had also noticed Sirius' and James' repeated trips to the bathroom or to the common room or to the library. As she went upstairs to change into her mother's costume that had arrived that morning at breakfast, she made a mental note not to scream when bats came rushing out at her.   
Lily didn't bother to change in the shelter of her bedcurtains; Serena, Abigail, Elspeth, and Diana were already doing that, so as to hide their costumes, and Lily saw no need to do the same, since they couldn't see her anyway. But, as she pulled the costume out of its box, she had to admit that her mother's costume manager had had taste.   
It was a white cream gown, with a midnight blue overdress, covering her arms to the elbows and hanging down from there in wide sleeves that were edged with long, white lace. The overdress seemed to be sleeves attached to a midnight-blue corset, which had been laced in front, in the style of Disney's Sleeping Beauty's black one. And, hanging down the back and sides of the white cream skirt, was the rest of the overdress; a midnight-blue piece of material looking like a skirt with the front part cut out so one could see the white, both edged with white lace.  
In delight, Lily found that she had shot up so far in the past two years that she could now fit into the gown without any difficulty, and without tripping over the hem, which she only had to take up two inches. And, everywhere on the overdress, someone had stitched gold fleur-de-lis', the king's symbol, but on the white, gold crosses were sported: the symbol of the cardinal. And the golden hairpiece that served as a sheath for the poniard went with this dress, and, with obvious excitement, Lily attached the flowing, twining golden mass to her hair, quoting to herself Milady's statement form when she was in prison and trying to seduce her guard, so as to escape.   
"Then, as if to render and account to herself of the changes she could place upon her countenance, so mobile and so expressive, she made it take all expressions from that of passionate anger, which convulsed her features, to that of the most sweet, most affectionate, and most seducing smile. Then her hair assumed successively, under her skilful hands, all the undulations she thought might assist the charms of her face. At length she murmured, satisfied with herself, "Come, nothing is lost; I am still beautiful."   
Mumbling that to herself, although she did not by any means consider herself pretty, Lily still felt that looked better than usual, and when the poniard was fixed in the sheath, her lips outlined in coral, and her eyes shaded in midnight blue, she felt she could almost accurately sustain the role of the beautiful, dangerous murderess.   
Lily left the dormitory and slipped outside, simply because she felt caged inside. Here, alone, with the stars smiling down on her–or frowning, she couldn't tell–she felt something inside her clamoring to be let out, and with a start, she discovered that, somehow, she knew what the ruthless Milady Clarik felt like when she had been insulted and wanted revenge. The same hatred–though with no cause–boiled up inside her and wouldn't be appeased. Lily was grateful when Sirius hand landed on her arm and led her inside. She had no idea where that sudden hate and recklessness had come from, and she was glad someone was there to contain her.  
Dressed in a black outfit, as the cardinal's right-hand man, Sirius also sported a large hat, black, and a long black cloak. He had attached a patch over one eye, and, with a sword fastened to his belt, he was the very picture of a dangerous cavalier. He noted, rather proudly, the stares they got as they walked through the corridors to Gryffindor Tower, and some of the glares. He had never seen anyone look as pretty as the slim, supple, temperamental redhead did when he pulled her in from outside, but he knew she would scoff at him if he told her that. The forest-green eyes, when shaded with the dark blue, darkened them and gave her a somewhat mysterious and fantastical look, matching attractively her medieval outfit. She also wore a necklace around her neck that he'd never seen before; it was on a gold chain, with five golden talons surrounding a midnight-blue stone. He was stunned she didn't know how nice she looked–and he privately thought he'd kill James for convincing her of that in her first year. Still, he refrained from telling her that, and they simply reviewed their skit as they returned to the common room.   
When they pushed the portrait door open (clam chowder), Lily was surprised to see a stage set up, which was obviously for the skits. Several people were already assembled, and Lily took a seat next to Remus.   
"Hallo!"   
Remus turned. "Oh–Lily, hi. Sirius–whatcha going as? You wouldn't tell me before, but it doesn't look good."   
Sirius shrugged.

"We almost did Macbeth and his wife, but Lily liked this better. I guess because she has the dress to go with it."   
"Oh–and I thought our costumes were all right! I'm a bit put down now."   
He did look nice, with a coat of chain mail underneath a scarlet cloak, and with a lance in his hand. And Elspeth did, too, with her eighth-century dress and hanging curls. But Sirius didn't bother to lift him from his delusion.   
Lily was watching the arrivals. Peter made a pretty poor Robin Hood, for Lily had the idea that Robin didn't cringe and jump every time someone accidentally pointed a wand at him, but Abigail, in a simple white gown with a deep purple sash, was the perfect Marian. Nigel Patil had decided to go with Miranda, and Lily smiled to see the Antony and Cleopatra costumes–Sirius had given them a hint. Anya MacGregor, the Gryffindor Seeker, had resigned herself to going with Joseph DeVonn, and they made an interesting Pocahontas and John Rolfe. But the two that took up the most space in the common room were Jacqueline de Forté and Frank Longbottom–they were dressed as Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler, and Jacqueline was fingering a vase with cherubs on it, which she was to smash as a reenactment of the scene at Twelve Oaks in the library. Pretty soon, the last couple arrived–James and Serena–and though everyone, including Lily, had to admit they looked very nice together, they all thought Serena could lose the look that suggested that a horse had just done its business in front of her.  
The first few skits were hilarious, and everyone laughed themselves sick when Peter was supposed to be shooting at an imaginary stag to show off and accidentally had his blunt arrow hit Abigail in the chest. She ad-libbed pretty well, though–"I've been struck by Cupid's arrow!"–and fell to the ground. She had to raise her head and glare at Peter before he came over and raised her to her feet and proposed.   
Pocahontas and John Rolfe were interesting, but a bit bland, as were Romeo and Juliet, simply because the scene was so common and cliché. Cleopatra and Antony did a very nice staged death, and they managed to make the rubber corn snake seen exactly like a real asp. Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher were pretty good, mostly because Tom did lots of 'showing off' antics involving handstands, but the person playing Tom couldn't do handstands and kept crashing into Becky. There were several others, but one of the best were the Scarlett and Rhett scene–Jacqueline, if she had been the right age when the movie was filmed, would have made a perfect Scarlett. The only small flaw was that when Scarlett hurled the vase across the stage and shattered it, Rhett peeked up from behind the sofa and said his line with half of his mustache missing and Josephine curled over, laughing, as did the audience, some of whom were spitting pumpkin juice out of their noses.   
Sirius had signed up for the last skit, and, with a final nod, Lily stepped onstage, bringing a table with her and a few sheets of her homework, then started ruffling through the papers. Sirius entered, and Lily started.   
"Ah," both of them cried together, "it is you!"   
"Yes, it is I."   
"And you come?" asked Lily.   
"From La Rochelle, and you?"   
"From England."   
"Buckingham?"   
"Dead or desperately wounded, as I left him without having been able to hear anything of him. A fanatic has just assassinated him." A triumphant smile adorned her lips.   
"Ah," said Sirius, grinning back, "this is fortunate."   
"Do you know who I have encountered here?" Lily's face contorted mischievously, and Sirius seemed to feel he was really in the presence of the dangerous favorite of the cardinal.   
"No."   
"That young woman whom the queen took out of prison–M. D'Artagnan's mistress, whom the cardinal was unable to locate. Imagine my astonishment when I found myself face to face with this woman!"   
"Does she know you?"   
"No."   
"Then she looks upon you as a stranger?"   
Lily tossed her head triumphantly. "I am her best friend."  
"Upon my honor," Sirius exclaimed, "it takes you, my dear countess, to perform such miracles!"   
The audience sat, half in wonder, half under a sort of spell, as the inherited acting trait Lily had received from her mother shone through, and ran through the lines she and her mother had read so many times at home. Lily knew this character inside out, and the blood of Milady Clarik seemed then to run in her veins as she and the Comte de Rochefort planned the imprisonment of the mistress of D'Artagnan and the sending to the Bastille D'Artagnan and his friend, Athos, on the grounds of Milady's private revenge. Sirius finally stood up.   
"Let us see: Buckingham dead or grievously wounded; your conversation with the cardinal overheard by the four Musketeers; Lord de Winter warned of your arrival at Portsmouth; D'Artagnan and Athos to the Bastille; Aramis the lover of Madame de Chevreuse, Porthos an a$$; Madame Bonacieux found again; to send you the chaise as soon as possible; to make you out a victim of the cardinal in order that the abbess may entertain no suspicion; Armentières, on the banks of the Lys. Is that all, then?"   
"Capital! Adieu, Chevalier." She fingered a small phial of red powder.   
"And what is that?"   
Lily's smile became condescending. "This is for Madame Bonacieux–the mistress of the D'Artagnan. It is at least my small act of revenge."   
Sirius grinned, shaking his head.   
"Adieu, Countess." He left the room, and Lily, looking furtively around her, poured the red powder into a glass, stirring it quickly. As the lights dimmed, they could hear her opening a door.   
"Here–drink this–it will restore your strength."   
The Gryffindors sat there in silence, but burst into applause when Sirius and Lily reappeared for bows. When they stepped into the audience, everyone was clapping them on the backs and applauding stormily while presenting them with butterbeers and chocolate creams. They were a great success, and to top it off, Lily could see Serena sitting in a corner, glaring at her as James obviously paid no attention to her meaningless chatter.

Lily's mental note not to scream when the bats escaped from under the stage and attacked everyone was wise. She was the only girl that stayed where she was, and her only response when Sirius 'dropped' a bat into her pumpkin juice was to calmly dump it and the liquid into his hat and put the hat on his head. No one tried that again.   
Later on in the evening, someone put a radio in the middle of the room and turned it to the Wizarding Wireless Network, and the party went sort of–well, not wild, but more insane. The boys that were dancing (Peter wasn't one) were doing all sorts of gymnastics, and there was always the chance that they would knock into a table and send food flying on someone (usually Peter). And when they dragged the girls into it, they kept pretending it was a sort of cheerleading competition and throwing them up into the air. More than once. Lily had to kick people so as to stay on the ground. It was only when a fast, fast song started with a quick beat, that she actually dared to come out onto the dance floor, which had been formed by the armchairs and tables being pushed against the walls. Remus had pulled her onto the floor, and, a bit shy at first, she started to dance, twirling and spinning and switching partners. And when she got used to it, it consumed her, and whatever it was that had been oppressed inside her that whole evening spun out as she did, and she lost herself in the movements. It was so easy for her to laugh, and she did, laughed lightly as the ringing of golden bells. And there–then at that moment, there wasn't a girl in the room that could contest her, either in spirit or face. The wildness and escaping energy of the moment flushed her face and put a fire in her eyes, and, untamed and ferocious as she was, she didn't fail to, unknowingly, change something in everyone there. Of course, in the girls' case, it was more a jealousy thing than anything else.  
The excitement lasted in her until she came upstairs and got undressed and washed her makeup off. As she was lying on her side, reading Macbeth, Serena came upstairs and headed straight for Lily.   
"What was the meaning of that?"   
"Of what?"   
"Your–your behavior down there!"   
"I was dancing, dear. It's not my fault if either James wanted to keep you in a corner or you can't dance."   
"I do hate you, Evans."   
"Likewise."   
"What made you think you could do that?"   
"Do what? Dance? I had no choice."   
"Liar! You've made just about every guy in this stupid tower crazy about you, and you know it. Don't try to play innocent. I know the truth."   
"Since when do you know what that word means? The many times you've lied, it seems to me that you haven't any idea that such a thing even exists. And I can assure you, no guy would willingly run after me. You'd have to pay them to do that. Of course, you're also probably paying James to put up with your nasty character."   
"You are going to shut you mouth right now,–or else."   
Lily deliberately stared at Serena, quizzically searched her face, and dropped her jaw as far as was possible.   
Serena stepped forward, thought better of it, turned on her heel, and jumped into bed, tearing the curtain where it was attached to a ring as she yanked them shut.  
Lily fell asleep not long afterwards, and dreams of her mother haunted her all night long. That wouldn't have been so strange, but the odd part was that she kept dreaming about places and parties and plays she had never before seen her mother in. More than once she woke up with her face wet.   
She woke up early; about six-thirty. Since the party had ended around three, she supposed everyone was still asleep, so she quickly got dressed and went outside; taking The Norse Myths with her.   
It was nicely warm outside; about sixty-five degrees. Lily headed straight for a tree near the lake that had two roots that twined to form a sort of makeshift seat. Resting her head against the tree trunk, she opened her book.   
Feet crackling near her made her look up. "Oh, hi!"   
Sirius sat down. "You're up early."   
"Likewise."   
"No; I never went to sleep. McGonagall made James and me stay up, cleaning up the common room." He wrinkled his nose. "Then I saw you heading outside, so I followed."   
"Why?"   
"I don't know–could be because I'm sick of hearing someone blab about what his girlfriend did that night and how exactly she frowned and smiled."   
Lily raised her eyebrows. "He does that?"   
"Well–not this morning, but I figured I'd leave before he got started."   
Smiling slightly, Lily closed her book. "I see."   
"By the way–" Sirius fiddled with a piece of grass–"you did really well last night."   
"So did you."   
He shook his head. "I can't act like that. If I did well at all–it was mainly because you were playing the other character."   
"Come again?" Dropping his shoulders, Sirius seemed caught for words. "I–I'm not sure–it just seemed–well–when you were on that stage, it seemed as if you really were Milady. Don't laugh–but I really did feel that way. You moved and talked just like she would have, and–well–well, you were perfect."   
Lily laughed. "Don't ever call anyone perfect. There is not a single person on this earth that is."   
"You were, though. I wish–I wish–tell me. How did you learn to act like that?"   
Puzzled, Lily shrugged. "I never learned anything. I haven't been in any plays–nothing–only Mother was." Her eyebrows knitted. "But I just–I just–there was something about that place that seemed to make everything on the stage real–so real–and the audience vanished. I just found myself being that woman and saying what she would–and it came naturally."   
"That's scary."   
Lily frowned. "What is?"  
"That the part of a cold-hearted murderess came naturally to you."   
Smiling, Lily tossed her head. "Well, it did. Mother–" her eyes lost the temporary sparkle–"Mother played her, before she married Father."   
"Oh. You told me that when I suggested that–"


	28. Chapter XXVIII

"I know." She cut him short so smoothly it didn't seem like an interruption.   
"Lily?"   
"What?"   
"Is there anything anyone can do to make you happy again?"   
Lily stared at him with eyes unseeing, and, after a few minutes, he understood, at least partly. Taking her by the shoulders and lightly shaking her, he was startled to find himself facing the same deep, bottomless eyes James had seen when he had shaken her out of a half-trance on the morning of the first day of school. Dark and frightened, deprived and saddened, those two orbs stared at him as if they were outlets to her soul. But soon the curtains fell over them again, quickly, and left the mocking, slightly sad eyes he knew so well.   
"There isn't, is there?"   
Slowly at first, then determinedly, Lily shook her head. "No."   
Sirius nodded, understanding. "It's time for breakfast–you look hungry. Come on in."   
Lily shook herself, then stood up. "You're right. I'm being stupid. Let's go inside." She walked beside him into the Great Hall, not listening to his explanation of how he hadn't said that she was stupid.   
When they got into the Great Hall and found seats, Lily was surprised to find that half the school was there. She had expected them to be asleep, but–but, well, they weren't. And when Sirius steered her to a place, she found herself next to the two conspirators and organizers of the night before.   
"Hi!"   
"James! You finally got those bats cleaned up?"   
James grimaced. "Yeah. And I'll bet McGonagall's gonna put some bat remains somewhere like inside sofa cushions, just so she can watch me clean it up. She's much more stricter than her mom."   
"You just noticed that?"   
"No. I'm restating a fact. Lil, how are you?"   
"Hum?" Lily looked up at him from over a glass of milk. "I'm fine."   
He put a hand on her arm. "Listen, you were really great out there last night."   
"Out where?"   
"That skit you and him–" he jerked his thumb at Sirius–"performed. I didn't know you could act like that!"   
Sirius shrugged. "I told her that, but she won't believe me. Seems like she doesn't believe anything good about herself–do you?"   
Lily stared at him disbelievingly. "There isn't anything to believe!" She set her piece of toast down, pushed her seat back, and left the Great Hall, leaving the two boys staring after her unbelievingly.]  
Sirius was the first to stop. "I told you!"   
"She really doesn't know? She could have a career in that! And be making millions a year besides–why doesn't she believe us? Or anyone, for that?"   
Sirius shook his head. "James, it's partly your fault."   
"My–" James partly stood up. "My fault?"   
"Yeah!" Sirius refused to be impressed with James' balled fist. "You were the one that told her that the only reason you were her friend was that she looked nice. Now you're seeing the consequences–and so is she."   
James sat back down, seeing Sirius's point. "Yeah, I suppose. But is there anything I can do about it?"   
Sirius smirked. "So–Miss Cissa isn't so perfect anymore?"   
James scowled. "Sirius, shut up!"   
"You didn't deny it!"   
Frowning, James dug into a piece of bacon. And he didn't bother to deny Sirius' statement, something Sirius was quick to notice.  
The first Quidditch match was scheduled between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, a week away from Halloween. Everyone was excited, and no one more so than the team members themselves. And no one was more tired than the fourteen Quidditch players–they would walk into the Great Hall in the mornings after training sessions held by torchlight and going on far into the night. Their record was a Gryffindor one–five thirty a.m., but Ravenclaw wasn't so far behind with four forty-five a.m.   
Every team member had dark circles around their eyes, and Sirius and Remus had managed to persuade Lily to help them with their homework. It took some talking, but Lily was finally won over, and she spent her mornings from two to six suggesting points to put in essays and checking calculations on Astronomy and Divination papers. She began to go off food, and her breakfasts were usually a piece of toast while she was correcting Study of Ancient Runes translations in the library.   
The teams began calling her the 'savior student', and they were relying heavily on her, for if they failed their classes, they would be kicked off of the Quidditch team. Lily was a bit unaware of the importance her previous studying and notes was doing for them, and they were glad of it, for if she had known, she could easily have blackmailed them into doing anything she wanted.   
Friday's lunch period was hectic. Lily was correcting the sketch of the planetary positions in the year 1875 on July 31st for a sixth year, crossing out grammatical mistakes and false statements in the History of Magic essay for a seventh year, and glancing over the summary of the chapter on vampires for a third year. And when she got into Anatomy, she was even more tired than any of the team members, and it was only when Professor Maar asked them for their drawings of the niffler's muscular system that it hit her–she had meant to do it when the Gryffindors were practicing, but then the Ravenclaw captain had begged her for help.   
Her head sank down onto her desk; she had never failed to turn in an assignment before now, and she waited nervously for the end of class and for Professor Maar to assign her detention–he was very strict about homework.  
It came as a relief and a shock to her, therefore, when he didn't ask her to stay after class–the only thing he'd said as they gathered their books was, "Mr. Potter, see me after class."   
She went through Potions in a sort of puzzled state, and she hardly noticed when James stepped in, handed a hurried note to Professor Cauldwell, and took his place at the cauldron next to hers and Remus'.   
Sirius poked James in the side. "What was that about?"   
"Maar asked to see me after class."   
"Why?"   
"I didn't have my homework."   
Lily heard that and jumped in. "But you did–I saw you doing it last night!"

James shrugged. "I didn't have mine."   
"You mean you didn't have it with you? But surely he'd let you go get it!"   
James sifted ground fruit fly wings into his cauldron. "I didn't have it."   
Puzzled, Lily turned back to her cauldron, pulling hippogriff feathers out of a bag and grinding them. Sirius searchingly stared from her to James, who was fixedly stirring their potion.   
"James!"   
"What?"   
"Don't give me that innocent look. You handed yours in, didn't you?"   
"My what?"   
"Stop that! You handed your work in under her name, didn't you?"   
James didn't say a word; just went on stirring.   
"That's gonna slop over in a minute. Turn the heat down a bit. You did, right?"   
Shrugging, James knelt and turned down the flame. "So?"   
Sirius frowned. "You've lost your mind. What do you think Serena's going to think?"   
"Cissa isn't going to think anything of the kind. Lily's been so busy helping us that she didn't have any time to do her own work–and a detention and a zero's not going to hurt me. She takes grades much more seriously than any of us do."   
"Uh-huh, yeah, right. You'd better hope Serena's not going to find out!"   
James straightened. "Sirius, she isn't."   
"She isn't?"   
"That was a not–so–subtle hint. Cissa isn't going to find out."   
Sirius raised his eyebrows. "All right, fine. But if she does, your life isn't going to be worth living."   
"I know."   
"And you did it anyway? Geez, you're insane!"  
  
Sirius had been wondering whether to tell Lily about that afternoon, and finally he decided to, even though it might not turn out so well for him. So, that night, when Lily was doing a History of Magic essay for Nigel, a shadow fell over the two rolls of parchment. She looked up.   
"Sirius! Sit–" She looked about her; the chairs and tables were littered with quills, books, parchment, and pencils. "I'll get you a chair." She started to clear away some of the clutter, but Sirius stopped her.   
"I don't need to sit to tell you this. You do."   
Lily shrugged. "Sure, if you say so." She tucked one leg under her and put her quill down, looking at him expectantly "Shoot!"   
He stepped in front of her. "You know, this afternoon in Potions?"   
"What about it?"   
"When James came in late because he didn't turn in his homework for Maar."   
"Oh, yeah, that. I was a bit surprised–I saw him doing it–and the funny thing is, I was the one that didn't have mine."   
"It's not that odd."   
She raised her eyebrows. "It's not?"   
"He handed in his stuff under your name."   
Lily's eyes widened, and her lips parted. "He didn't!"   
Sirius nodded. "He did."   
"Why?"   
"He said something like you had been helping the team out so much, and a zero would matter more to you than to him. Something like that. But I really don't believe it."   
Lily frowned. "I don't see why you wouldn't. It was nice of him–but he didn't have to."   
"Exactly. That's why I'm more than a bit suspicious that that wasn't his real reason."   
Lily looked up. "Sirius, what're you trying to say?"   
"You haven't noticed, have you?"   
"Noticed what?"   
"I'll take that as a no. But really–it'd take someone who's lost all their senses to not realize what's going on."   
"I'm perfectly sane."   
"Not like that–I mean like you can't see, feel, hear…that kind of sense."   
"Oh. Then you must have all those in excess, because I'm not sure I understand what you're getting at."   
Sirius threw his hands into the air, secretly relieved. "All right, fine! Never mind. I'm going to bed. See you tomorrow." He headed for his dormitory, and Lily stared after him as though he was an escaped lunatic.  
The next morning, Abigail was shaking Lily awake. Lily had fallen asleep with her head on Translations and Runes, and Abigail had to work hard to get her up.   
"Wh–what time is it?"   
"Ten till ten. Hurry! We'll miss the match!"   
Lily shook the sleep out of her eyes as she jumped up with a hurried "Thank you." She started for her dormitory, but Abigail held her back, pushing the Gryffindor scarf Remus had given Lily in her first year towards her friend. Lily smiled quickly, tied the scarf around her waist, as it was hot outside, and both of them started for the doorway, arriving at the Quidditch field and taking their places just as the Quaffle and both teams rose into the air.The Ravenclaw commentator had graduated, and a Slytherin fifth year had taken over, who was quite a biased person to choose. As the teams took off, so did the commentator, closely watched, as usual, by Professor McGonagall.   
"Aaand…they're off! We've got a new Chaser here–Rebecca Oxley, and she's taking over for Ashley Thomas. Oxley gets the Quaffle, heading for the goalposts–Quaffle goes to Potter–Shaw–and a bit of fantastic Bludger work by Ravenclaw Beater Gates. Quaffle in hands of Ravenclaw Chaser Newby–Park–Newby…Newby flying with Potter right next to him–kick him offa his broom, Newby!–Professor, I wasn't serious!–anyway, Potter gets the Quaffle–probably cheated–what am I saying–must have cheated; he's a Gryffindor, for Pete's sake!–and there goes Potter–dodges a Bludger–nice try, though, Gates!"   
The Gryffindors were pulling ahead, thirty to ten, and the Ravenclaws weren't responding well.   
"And that was a nice punch in the nose to Potter–well done, Gates! Oh, too bad–Gryffindor penalty.

Better luck next time! Shaw throws…Patton intercepts–never mind. Gryffindor point–forty to ten. Patton, you gotta try, you gotta try!" The Gryffindors were still ahead, and quickly, as a stormcloud grew larger over the edge of the Forbidden Forest, so did their score. The Snitch was nowhere to be seen, and, as drops began to fall, so did the spirits of the students, thinking they were doomed to be out here till nightfall in the pouring rain. Everyone was shielding themselves from the pouring rain by holding cloaks over their heads. Lily found it a bit odd that several boys were offering to hold their cloaks over her head, and she was deeply grateful when Sirius got her out of that situation when he yelled over his shoulder, "A little rain never hurt anyone, and if it did, she'd be inside!" It started to thunder, and Lily was soaked from head to foot. So was everyone else, and the robes that Sirius and Remus were holding over the three of them were starting to resemble a waterfall. Even wringing them out didn't help, and they had resorted to adding their cloaks, Lily's scarf, and Remus' sweater. Dimly, through the rain, they could hear the commentator. "And I just got a raindrop in my eye and we need to get new tents–these things are soaked! Professor, there's this company that sells waterproof–"   
"MURPHY!"  
"Oh, right. Potter in possession of the Quaffle, Oxley–Shaw–Oxley–Potter–Shaw–Potter–and they don't–dammit, they score. And it's obvious that they must have hexed the Ravenclaw Keeper–Gryffindor ahead, ninety to sixty. And something practically knocks Venn off of his broom–come on, Venn, that was only a Bludger–wait, no, it wasn't! Venn! Venn! Snitch down by goalposts at Gryffindor end–MacGregor catching up…what–SH–" "MURPHY!" The stadium exploded, especially from the Gryffindor end. Anya was rising into the air, fist clutched around a golden, fluttering walnut. "Right, sorry. John Winters launches mean Bludger at Venn, and MacGregor get the Snitch–score's three forty to sixty for Gryffindor, and we need new tents!"  
Relieved, excited, and drenched, the Gryffindors poured down onto the field, hugging the team members and lifting them high into the air. Anya, the Seeker, was grinning so hard her smile crossed on the back of her head. When they reached the entrance hall, their excitement was so electric and they were so wet that they didn't even stop to curse at Peeves, who had decided to dump buckets of water onto them. They reached Gryffindor Tower quickly, and entered and attacked the pre-prepared feast with just as much speed.Lily could tell that several someones had been to Hogsmeade by the amount of butterbeers, slabs of Honeydukes chocolate, levitating sherbet balls, sugar quills, and the like. She suspected Peter, for she hadn't seen him at the match, but then again, she doubted if he'd have the gumption. The midpoint of the feast was a large cake in the shape of a broom–someone must have placed a special request in the kitchens. It was a red velvet cake with pale gold buttercream icing, and when Frank Longbottom bit into his slice, something exploded inside his mouth–someone had put a wet-start firecracker inside. Lily thought she could put a name to that someone–there was only one person at Hogwarts so obsessed with firecrackers. Still, the cake was very good, and so was everything else, though she steered clear of the Fudge Flies James had described for her in her first year–they were supposed to have a tint of blood flavoring.  
  
They went to bed late; around two, though Lily stayed up a bit later to show Miranda exactly what was meant by an eclipse of a half-moon. When she woke up, it was ten in the morning, and Lily was a bit miffed to find that she had missed breakfast. However, she wasn't really complaining–it was the first time in a week that she'd gotten over four hours' sleep–it usually had been under. She felt a rustling underneath her hand and sat up in bed. Pulling a letter out of the envelope, she quickly unfolded it.  
_  
Lily,   
This isn't usual, this method of writing, at least not for me, but we asked the Ministry of Magic for an owl to send something to you, and they gave us one free of charge. We need you to come home. I don't know quite what's happening, but it has to do with Mum. Dad's not bearing up too well–overwork and late nights, and plus–I've heard him mumbling Mom's name in his sleep. It's driving me crazy, along with him, and we need you here. Forget your dumb school. This is Dad we're talking about, and that's way more important than learning how to wave a wand. Come as soon as possible.   
Petunia_  
  
Lily looked up, half in shock. "Please God, not him and Mom! Not both of them!"  
  
Ignoring the strange stares of everyone in the common room as she dashed through and pushed open the portrait in only her black nightgown and a navy bathrobe and slippers, she raced for the staff room, looking for a teacher, any teacher. When she knocked, pushing the door open, she encountered something she hadn't expected. Professor McGonagall was in there, hat askew, gesticulating wildly at two people in front of her. Lily recognized them–Severus and James. But when Lily closed the door, Professor McGonagall stopped her tirade, straightened her hat, and turned to Lily. "What is it?" "I–I–" Lily's voice shook. "I need to speak to Professor Dumbledore, please." Professor McGonagall eyed Lily suspiciously. "May I understand the circu mstances?" "It–it's–I–" She stopped, couldn't go on, and Professor McGonagall suddenly looked worried

She shooed the boys out of the room, and as they left, relieved, she moved towards Lily.   
"Miss Evans?"   
Lily shook. "I–I need to see Professor Dumbledore. Please. I–I have to–it's terribly important."   
Her face turned a deathly white, and she came close to fainting, but Professor McGonagall caught her just before she hit the ground and set her in a chair.   
"I will be right back." She left the classroom and closed the door silently, and it seemed hours before Dumbledore entered the room, dark blue robes and long, gray beard swaying.  
"Miss Evans?"   
Lily stood up and silently handed him Petunia's letter. He glanced quickly through it, then put a steadying hand on her shoulder.   
"We will send you home immediately. You will not have to make up any work for any of your classes. I will have a house-elf take your things down to the train as soon as you have finished packing." He looked very serious, but at the same time compassionate, and Lily felt strengthened as she left the room.   
When she walked through the common room, Sirius tried to stop her.   
"Lily? What's wrong?"   
"Nothing. Go away."   
James and Remus had now climbed over the backs of a sofa. "Lil, what's wrong?"   
Lily almost snapped with impatience. She whirled on the boys, who backed away from her quickly.   
"I told you nothing's wrong. You're going to believe me when I say so, for if I do, it means I don't want any interfering idiots pulling at my sleeves with their stupid 'What's wrong, Lily?'s. I'm sick–sick to death of all you shallow brats, and thank God I'm leaving!" She whirled around and went to the girls' dormitory stairs, but James grabbed her arm.   
"Lil, really, you can tell us!"   
She had had enough. What with the fear of her father possibly dying any instant coupled with an enraged impatience, she reached back and hit him across the face with all the force in her arm. Lips drawn back from her teeth, showing pale pearls, and cheekbones sticking out of her face, she was frightening. In anger she was more defensive, horrifying, and aggressive than anyone they had ever met before, and James drew back from her with an aching head and the clear mark of a handprint on the right side of his face. With a last glare, she vanished into the gloom of the dormitory stairs, leaving the boys behind her baffled and stunned at the ferocity and suddenness of her attack.  
Inside the dormitory, she ignored the puzzled glances Elspeth and Diana were giving her, and hurriedly started to throw things haphazardly into her trunk. When she had finished, she slammed the lid down with a loud bang, pulled a philosophy book out of her pillowcase, and retreated down the stairwell. She hadn't said a word since she had left James, Sirius, and Remus, and if it hadn't been for the packed trunk, the inmates of the room would have thought that they had been dreaming.   
James tried to stop her again in the common room, which was both very brave and very stupid.   
"Lil, really! Tell me–what's going on?"   
She snarled, turning on him like a cheetah whose kittens were in danger. "You never learn, do you? Get out of my way!"   
"Lily! We're not letting you leave like this!"   
"Oh, you're not? Well, you're in for a surprise. I am, and you're not stopping me–GET OUT OF MY WAY, POTTER!"   
She shrieked that last bit, and it left her hoarse, besides attracting the attention of the entire common room. Lily raised her hand again as he didn't move, but with a quick gesture, he caught both of her wrists and simply looked at her. That stare took all of the wrath out of her, and she stood there, limply. Then, regathering her strength, she pulled away.   
"Get your hands off me, you fool." A bit surprised when he obeyed and stepped out of her way, she neverthless pushed her way out of the masses that had gathered, pushing aside the portrait.   
Professor McGonagall met her outside the portrait, and she steered Lily outside, where the giant of a gamekeeper met them, and he walked Lily down to the train station in Hogsmeade, where a relatively tiny train met them. She was put onto the train, along with her trunk and the gamekeeper, who was serving her as a sort of guard and guide. With a piercing whistle, the train took off and moved out of Hogsmeade.  
The almost-giant's name was Hagrid, she found out, and beyond that, she knew nothing about him, as they passed their trip in silence. When, hours later, the train pulled up at King's Cross, Hagrid escorted her out through the barrier, steered her towards a Ministry official in a green uniform, and said goodbye to Lily with a hard clap on the back as the car the official had brought moved out of the parking lot.   
She didn't even need to tell the man her address; he brought her straight to her home and held the car door open for her as she stepped out. And as he took her trunk out of the car and dragged it to the door, Lily was almost bowled over by her older sister, who had been waiting at the door. She had flung it open and rushed for her sister, grabbing her around the neck and crying heartily. This unnerved Lily more than anything else–it must be very bad if Petunia was hugging her, a witch, for comfort. She thanked the Ministry official politely, offered him a Galleon, which he declined, and went inside in search of her father.   
Petunia shook her head when she opened the door that led to her parents' room.   
"Lily, he's at work. He always is, now–and whenever he comes home, it looks like he's seen a ghost. He'll be home in about three hours." Lily glanced outside, which was black as pitch, then at the clock. "Three hours? Tunia, it's ten thirty!" Petunia nodded sadly. "I know. He's always out this late."   
Lily shook her head, trying to clear the cobwebs away, then turned to her trunk. "Tunia, help me carry this to my room?"   
Her sister nodded. "Sure." Together, they grasped a handle at each end and managed to maneuver it up the stairs and to Lily's room. Exhausted, they sat down on the bed, breathing hard.   
"Tunia, you're sure about this?"   
"Lily, I've got eyes, haven't I?"   
"All right." She sighed and heard her stomach rumble. "You hungry? I'm starved."   
Petunia nodded. "I'm terribly hungry. I can't cook so well–and Dad–well, he hasn't bothered lately. I've just been going over to Vernon's to eat."   
Lily nodded. "Anything in the refrigerator?"

"Sort of. Some onions, milk, eggs if they're any good, and butter. We have some potatoes in the pantry–and a tiny bit of flour. I used the last bit of cocoa powder and sugar this morning when I was bored, and I haven't any money to go shopping with. We have lots of spices, but you can't live on that."   
Lily frowned. "That's going to change. Come downstairs with me." Determinedly, she walked to the bookshelf that included her Jewish Kids Catalogue, and pulled it out, flipping to the page that held recipes. Picking out the simple latkes recipe, she went into the kitchen, pulling out a grater, knife, and a bowl. She burrowed for a while till she found some good potatoes, but when she did, she lost no time paring the largest three and handing them to her sister, along with the grater and the bowl.   
"Grate these. Mother taught me how to make this, and if I tell Dad that, he's going to eat if I have to force it down his throat." She set herself to paring an onion, and she saw out of the corner of her eye the obvious relief of her older sister; that someone was finally taking over.   
They spoke over the food; Petunia told her sister all about her father's behavior as she cracked the eggs into the grated potatoes and onions, and Lily told Petunia of some of the things that had happened at Hogwarts as she flipped the latkes over the burner on the stove. Several regular potatoes were left over, and those Lily chopped up and threw into the pan along with a pinch of cayenne pepper, some bits of sliced onions, and the rest of the butter. As she placed the glass lid on top of the pan, she asked her sister about the money situation.   
"How much do you have?"   
"Lily, I have one pound and that's it. Absolutely it. Dad hasn't been giving me my allowance, and I'm only fourteen–they're not hiring me anywhere."   
Lily frowned. "Do you think Vernon's parents could take us to London?"   
Petunia was startled. "I'm sure they could–why?"   
"I still have money in my vault at Gringotts–I could exchange that. But do you know what he's been doing with his salary?"   
"I haven't asked."   
But at two, when their father finally got home, Lily knew. When her father stumbled in the door, and sat down at the kitchen table, gripping his head in his hands, she could smell the strong scent of liquor, and her shoulders slumped. Forget relying on him for money–she'd have to handle this. Handing her father a plate full of food she'd warmed up, she watched him eat as she poured him a glass of milk and explained that Petunia had asked her to come home.   
Lily finally saw him to bed at three, and then only she let herself flop into her own bed. She fell asleep almost before she hit the pillows.  
She woke up in the morning to find her sister shaking her shoulder violently. Sitting up quickly and rubbing her head where she'd hit it on the wall, Lily faced Petunia.   
"What?"   
"Dad's about to leave for work, and I don't know how to stop him!"   
Lily swung her feet out of bed. "How ready is he?"   
Petunia shrugged. "He doesn't have socks or shoes on yet, but he told me to get him a thermos of black coffee. He said his head was ready to explode."   
Lily didn't bother to put on her bathrobe. She simply ran down the stairs into the kitchen, took a quick look at the phone numbers posted on the refrigerator, and dialed her father's boss' number.   
"Mr. Grant's office?"   
"Yes, this is Mr. Evans' daughter. Will you please inform Mr. Grant that Mr. Evans is sick and will not be arriving today?"   
"I will tell him. Thank you and have a nice day!"   
Lily hung up. "I'm gonna need that!" Shaking herself, she rushed to the medicine cabinet, running her fingers over the different bottles, finally landing on one labeled Sleeping Pills. Shaking all of the pills out of the aspirin bottle, she dumped the sleeping pills into the aspirin bottle and took it along with the thermos of coffee to her father, first making sure the coffee was decaffeinated.   
"Dad?"   
He was fixing his tie in front of the mirror, but at the sound of her voice he turned. "Hi, hon. Is that coffee?"   
She nodded. "It is. Petunia told me you have a headache?"   
"Not just a headache. Feels like someone was crushing my skull in a hydraulic press."   
Lily shivered, but pulled out the aspirin bottle. "Dad, try this. It might help."   
She dropped the pill into the coffee, stirred it a bit, and handed it to her father, who immediately gulped down half of the thermos.   
"Thanks, hon. Oh, man–dear, would you tell Grant I'll be a bit late? I've got to take a short nap–"   
Lily nodded. "Of course. You rest. Love you, Dad." Giving him a light kiss on his forehead, she left the room, closing the door softly.  
Outside, she met Petunia.   
"He's asleep? How–"   
"Sleeping pill. Don't ask. I'm getting ready, and you ask Vernon's parents if they can take us to London. Tell them the whole darn story–I don't care, only please manage to keep quiet that we're going to Gringotts."   
"Sure–but what should I tell them?"   
"Anything. I've got a bank account there is fine. Just call them!"   
"All right." Petunia vanished down the stairs and picked up the receiver while Lily pulled her hair into a somewhat sloppy braided bun and slipped into a pair of jeans and her blue blouse. The burns she had received that summer were fading, and there were only a few pale pink spots where the black skin had been, Lily was pleased to note.   
Petunia came back up just as Lily was pushing her feet into a pair of tennis shoes. "His mum's taking us. She has to go to London anyway, so it's fine with her."   
Lily nodded. "When's she picking us up?"

"Ten minutes. I'll go get ready." She went down the hall to her room, and Lily busied herself by locating her Gringotts key, her wand, and the bit of money she had left over from that summer, along with her bag. Then, hurriedly, she rummaged her father's briefcase for his keys. They left the house, locking it firmly, just as Mrs. Dursley pulled up in their driveway. Petunia chattered with her while Lily sat in the back seat, already exhausted, knowing the worst was yet to come.   
Mrs. Dursley set them off in front of the bank that was on the other side of the record shop that bordered the Leaky Cauldron, and they had to go inside and wait there till she pulled away. Then, dodging through the rotating door, they slipped inside the Leaky Cauldron.   
Making it through unnoticed, they reached the alley. Lily pulled her wand out and tapped the bricks, and immediately, they moved aside, forming an archway large enough for the both of them to pass through.   
Ignoring the odd looks she was getting from some of the grownups (no kids their age were home at this time of year; they were all at school), they made their way into Gringotts, where, after a wild cart ride, Lily emerged with fifty Galleons. Petunia had declined the ride.   
Pulling her sister along with her, Lily marched down to a free goblin, asking him to exchange her money for Muggle currency. He asked no questions, simply handed it out to her, and, relieved, Lily and Petunia walked outside into the bright sunlight.   
As they were moving towards the exit leading to the Leaky Cauldron, Lily knew she must have jumped even farther than Petunia did when someone laid a hand on her shoulder.   
"You're Vanessa and Eva's friend, aren't you? What're you doing here?"  
Lily spun around and recognized someone she knew; Mr. and Mrs. Doylen. They were looking at her with polite puzzlement, and they were even more startled when her eyes dilated in a sort of fear, she rapidly turned and dragged her companion out of Diagon Alley with her. Lily didn't stop till they were outside the Leaky Cauldron, and only then did she allow herself to breathe normally and let her fingers go of Petunia's arm. Petunia rubbed the spot where Lily's fingernails had dug in, and she frowned at the nailmarks.   
"What'd you do that for?"   
Lily pulled Petunia to a nearby bus stop. "They're my friend's parents, and I was scared that I'd have to explain to them what we were doing here. I didn't want to start bawling in the middle of Diagon Alley."   
"Oh. Where're we going now?"   
"Supermarket nearest home. Come on!" The next bus came fifteen minutes later, and they were a block away from the closest store to their house in another fifteen. Lily handed her sister a list of things they needed that she'd made while on the bus, and, forty-five minutes later, they were standing at the cash register with a few loaves of bread, milk, eggs, butter, orange juice, some different cuts of meat, a large assortment of fruits and vegetables, coffee, flour, sugar, bags of rice, some pasta and quite a few cans of tomato paste, soup, and other things. It cost Lily half of her withdrawn money, but she was satisfied with the result as she crammed the refrigerator, freezer, and pantry full of their purchases that had close to broke both of their backs when they were carrying them home. But neither of them complained as they replaced sheets on beds, took down curtains and shook out rugs, washed and folded six large loads of laundry, ironing three out of the six, and mopped and vacuumed floors and carpets. When their father woke up, they had done a thorough house-cleaning, besides putting lunch on the table. When he woke up and drifted downstairs, he was greeted with an, "Afternoon, Daddy!" and a bowl of some sort of stew along with creamed corn and a choice of orange juice or milk. He hadn't the strength to ask where this all came from, simply accepted it. This scared Lily, for he was behaving like a three-year-old, taking everything for granted, and it frightened her to think she might have the responsibility of the household descend on her tiny shoulders.   
The Ministry sent an owl a week later, and they visited to check up on them in two weeks. Lily was proud to tell them that everything was going smoothly; she had seen her father off to work three days after she came home, he was coming home by six, smelled just like the coffee that she knew the employees had in a coffeemaker down in the basement, and to top that off, the house was clean, the refrigerator and pantry stocked with food from her father's last paycheck, Petunia and she had the time to attend the neighborhood school, and she and her sister were getting along perfectly.  
It surprised her to see the regularity with which the household was running since she came home, but she had no idea that it was all due to her. She simply thought that everything was going nicely because her father had given up drinking, and she certainly didn't think that she was filling her mother's place. The truth was that her father had missed her mother so much, and now that there was someone so like his dead wife running the household, it seemed as if she wasn't dead at all. And Lily didn't know this, but Petunia was shuddering to think of what was going to happen when Lily returned to Hogwarts.   
Three weeks had passed, and Lily had informed the Ministry of Magic that she intended to return home at the end of a month. They were sending a car driven by a Ministry official to drive her there, so there would be no transportation problem. 

There were hardly any problems; the only ones there were was how to inform people at school of the reason of her absence. And that one she didn't consider; she simply thought that it was none of their business. If they cared to pester her about it, they would be warned by what happened to James, and hopefully they would leave her alone. 

Eva had sent her several owls, asking her what was going on. Lily hadn't bothered to answer or even open them; she hadn't had much free time. But as the letters grew more frequent, one morning, she slit the latest two open. It wasn't really anything that she hadn't expected; it simply asked her why she had left, why she hadn't answered any letters, and what was wrong. She also told Lily that if anything was terribly wrong, she could count on Eva and Eva's family, along with anyone at Hogwarts. A postscript informed her that Serena was being very moody and James wasn't paying as much attention to her as he had been; she just thought Lily would like to know that. There were several letters of the same sort from Severus, and she sent him a laconic answer she'd composed during first period Literature at the public school.   
_  
Thanks a bunch for bothering about me, but I'm fine, and so is everyone else here. There's nothing wrong; and I'll be coming back to Hogwarts on Sunday. See you then.   
  
–Lily   
  
P.S.–You can show this around; I don't care. I'd send another to Eva, but I only have one owl. The other one is strictly for messages to the Ministry._


	29. Chapter XXIX

She felt a bit relieved when she saw Alisande disappear into the clouds with Lily's letter clamped in her beak, and was pleased to think that she wouldn't be bombarded with letters any more. And, a week later, on Sunday morning, when the Ministry official pulled up outside her house at six in the morning, she was ready to leave. Lily had arranged with Mrs. Dursley that she would check up on her family from time to time, and she was coming home for Christmas and Easter vacations.   
The trip took almost forever; in reality it was fifteen hours before they pulled up at the Hogsmeade train station, where Hagrid was waiting for her. He took her trunk and bag, so they got to Hogwarts relatively quickly. He took her to Dumbledore's office, and after she had checked in and confirmed that she and her family were all right, she fell into her four-poster at ten o'clock.  
Lily woke up next morning exhausted; not surprising, after all, she had spent fifteen hours in a cramped car. Still, she thankfully appreciated the warm shower that refreshed her nicely, and she blessed the house-elves for having washed all of her clothing that had been badly wrinkled after being shut in her trunk. So she was able to slip into her mother's Youth Actor's T-shirt and the jazz pants without feeling that she had put on clothes that had had a cliff dropped upon them and formed permanent wrinkles. Touching her shirt briefly and remembering reading over scripts with her mother, she tied both of her braids with a bit of wide black ribbon, put on the old tap shoes she hadn't paid much attention to lately, and over all that the Hogwarts robes. Ready, though still tired, she walked downstairs to the common room.   
Lily wasn't very hungry, even though she'd had nothing for twenty-four hours, so she didn't go downstairs for breakfast. This allowed her to avoid being attacked by her friends, whom she had pretty much avoided for the last month. She simply curled up in an armchair and dozed off, only waking up when someone tugged at her sleeve.   
"Lily! You're back! Snape said you would be today, but of course we didn't believe him, and we've missed you so much!"   
It was Eva. She hugged her friend tightly, and, after releasing her hold and allowing Lily to breathe, she went on with her news.   
"And Slytherin stampeded Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff in the last Quidditch matches, so all we've got to do now is to beat Hufflepuff to be in the final running, and–oh, it's so good to see you!" She hugged Lily again, who was trying to repress a smile.   
"And Serena's been a regular git lately, but we all know why that was. And practically all the Gryffindor team failed this Transfig exam McGonagall popped on us because you weren't there to help them study, and everyone's been asking about you, especially Abigail and Sirius and Remus and Peter, and you haven't answered me at all lately! I must've sent you tons of letters, but you never sent anything back, and you've got to tell me all that's been going on! Mum and Dad said they saw you in Diagon–"   
The bell to go to classes interrupted Eva, and Lily jumped up and grabbed her bag. "Eva, I promise I'll tell you what I can tonight, but now my teacher's gonna kill me if I don't get to Ancient Runes!"   
Eva nodded. "Fine. I've got to go, too, but, oh, Lily–"   
Lily got to Study of Ancient Runes just as the bell rang, so she didn't have to answer many questions. Her seat next to Sirius was still empty, and she slid into it, smiling quickly at her friend.   
Their lesson that day was a bit harder. They were given a short paragraph of an unknown language (that looked suspiciously like Quenya) to translate and rewrite in English, but with the letters of that language.  
Lily finished just as the bell rang, and she immediately dashed off to Potions, where she was bombarded by notes from Sirius, Remus, Peter, and the Slytherins. This class was ideal for passing notes, as Professor Cauldwell never opened his eyes, but it was bad for talking. Professor Cauldwell had some sort of built-in magical radar for people even mouthing words. The only answers Lily gave were to Sirius and Severus: I'll tell you later, and to everyone else; C'est pas tes oignons.   
The only other different things about her classes was that tiny Professor Flitwick, the Charms professor, gave her a tiny grin and that Professor Trelawney kept looking at her with eyes even more bug-like, larger, and more mournful than ever. It was ignorable at first, but after a quarter hour, it became positively annoying.   
By the time dinner came around, Lily was famished, and she dug into the sweet potatoes, steak-and-kidney pie, and leek soup with an appetite that made Eva stare. But then again, as Lily pointed out, Eva had had lunch, dinner, breakfast, and lunch. Lily hadn't; she had spent the lunch hour in Professor Dumbledore's office explaining the events of the last month. She had the very strong feeling, however, that he was a bit amazed at what she had told him; what she didn't know was that the amazement was at the amount of things she, a thirteen-year-old, had accomplished.   
When dinner was over, Lily went to her old dormitory, along with Eva, Vanessa, Amanda, and Abigail, and explained to them that her father had come close to losing his mind with grief over his dead wife, and that she had had to help out at home. Not a word about his drinking.   
The next week passed in a blur; the only things that stood out were Serena, Inc. and Sheila & Co., who had joined together in making Lily out to be a sort of pathetic Cinderella type of person, and ordering her to carry their books in the hallway. Lily could have replied smartly, but she had the funny idea that they weren't really worth whatever kicks she wanted to give them, so she ignored them. She was also coming in for a fair share of taunts about the tap shoes, but when Lily responded with, "They're really good for kicking people with. At least–I think they are–would you mind if I tested them on you?", the comments ceased. The next Quidditch match came and went, and Serena and Sheila kept growing nastier and nastier. If Lily had cared enough about their jibes to ask someone why they were doing that, she either would have gotten a disbelieving look or a long explanation. This long explanation came, unasked for and a bit unwelcome for both the reciever and speaker, from Sirius.   
"You mean you haven't noticed? Isn't there such a thing as a woman's intution or something like that? Smart as you are, I'd think you'd have noticed."   
"Noticed what?"   
"Just watch James when he's unaware of it. Anytime–Potions, Charms, Divination, Anatomy, Astronomy I think you have with him, Herbology I know you do, Transfiguration, and History of Magic–in any of those classes! Or lunch; I don't care; dinner or breakfast would work just as well!"   
"Why?"   
"Lily, dear, there's such a thing as non-comprehension and stupidity."   
"And my case would be…?"

"Stupidity."   
"Gee, thanks."   
"But, Lily, you should have seen James when you were gone. He hardly paid any attention to Serena, hardly any attention to the Quidditch–"   
"I heard my name?"   
Sirius whirled around. "Oh, hi, James…I was just mentioning…mentioning…"   
Lily saved him. "Mentioning to me how incredibly stupid I am. Good night!" She climbed over the back of the sofa, leaving the two boys there, one a bit puzzled, the other starting after her.   
"Lily, I didn't mean it that way! Lily–"   
James pulled Sirius back. "What were you really telling her?"   
Sirius pulled his face into a half-grin. "I'll take a leaf outta Lily's book. Good night!" With that, he had vanished up the dormitory stairway, leaving James feeling incredibly glad that he'd butted in when he did.  
  
The next morning, Remus had vanished. The official explanation was that he had been attacked in the hallway by a few enraged Slytherins; the real one was that he was vacationing at a charming resort located in Hogsmeade; name: The Shrieking Shack; entrance: passageway underneath an enraged tree; companions: fictional ghosts and self. Lily was relieved to hear that everyone was forbidden to go near it now–someone named Davey Gudgeon had nearly lost an eye trying to touch the trunk, so now the passageway should be safer than it had been.   
Lily was sending regular owls to Petunia with instructions: don't let Dad leave the house without eating breakfast, don't let him leave a mess around the house, make him do something other than just watch TV, be sure and call him several times when you get home from school, make him come home at a reasonable hour or there'll be punishments like no coffee in the mornings, put his paycheck in the bank yourself, and, for Pete's sake, make sure he doesn't smell like a drunk! She was also sending her father regular letters along with those to Petunia, mostly saying things like "I love you, Dad; don't forget me before I come home at Christmas!" So, in a sense, Lily was still running the household, but from far away.   
One morning, a Saturday, Lily was wandering outside on the grounds, munching an apple absentmindedly while she played with the hem of her robes. She knelt down by the side of the lake, welcoming the chilly breeze. Vaguely, as she stared into the depths of the lake, she heard a rustling next to her, but she practically fell over backwards when the rustling spoke.   
"So, what really went on at your place when you were gone?"  
Lily sat back up. "Jesus, you nearly scared the living death outta me!"   
"So you're in possession of living death?"   
"Of course. I'm just special like that."   
"Ah. Mind if I sit here?"   
"You're already sitting."   
"I know. But do you mind?"   
"Well, you wouldn't move even if I said yes, so I'll say no and see what happens. No."   
"Good." He let out a relieved sigh. "So, any hints as to what you really went through?"   
Lily stiffened. "I don't see why you should care."   
"I'm your friend, possibly?"   
"Are you?"   
He shrugged. "I'd like to be. Would you let me?"   
"I don't know." She leaned back and stared up at the sky, lying on the grass. "I don't see why you'd want to be."   
"I don't know, either. I just do."   
"That's scary."   
"You don't say." He leaned back into the freshly cut lawns, too, staring at a passing airplane. "But you didn't tell us everything when you told us why you went."   
"I showed you the letter, didn't I?"   
"Yeah." He sat up halfway, facing her, head resting on his hand. "But you went through a bit more than just comforting your father."   
"You're psychic now?"   
"No. I can just read faces better. You've got dark rings under your eyes that never came from telling your father you'd be there for him. What?"   
For Lily had sat up sharply, hands pressed above her cheekbones. "I do?"   
"I would offer to loan you a mirror, but they're so evident that you could see them if you looked into that lake. Plus I'm a guy."   
"But how can we be sure of that?"   
"You could check?"   
Lily stared at him incredulously; then, when he started laughing at her face, she also pulled her face into a grin. "I'll pass." She dropped back into the stems of grass, and almost hit James in the face when she moved her arm up quickly after an antbite.   
"Watch it!"   
"Sorry. Ants."   
"Oh–Hey–what's that?" He had caught sight of the back of her right arm when she had lifted it, and the burnt marks were still evident, though still a light pink.  
Lily turned red and sat up quickly, hiding her arms behind her back. "Nothing."   
"It looks like you were burnt or cut or something!"   
She turned an even deeper shade of red. "I told you, it's nothing!"   
He sat up, too, facing her. "Is that why you're looking so terrible?"   
"Well, thanks! Is what why?"   
"Your father doesn't–he doesn't–" James stopped, stuck. "He didn't do that, did he?"   
"Do what?"   
"Lil, you should turn him in for that! That might be serious–what am I saying–it is serious! It looks like you were hurt really bad–let me see that!" He wrenched her arm away and held it still, in spite of her repeated efforts to pull away.

"You've either had skin cut away or been burnt, and I'm inclined to think the former. What really happened last month?"   
Lily was the one that was stuck, but not for the same reason. Her mind was searching frantically for an excuse or a real good lie.   
"Lil, you can tell me! Really–listen, I really think you should go to Dumbledore about that! I think–"   
Lily managed to pull away. She stood up with such a force that she almost fell backwards, but was saved by the trunk of the willow that loomed up behind her. Ignoring the branch that was stabbing her between the shoulderblades, her anger broke loose again.   
"You think you have the right to assume anything you like about my family, don't you? Anything that might make you out to be a sort of comforter–let me go!" She pulled away from him, practically spitting her words out.   
"You don't have the right to think anything. If you're so slow you think of stupid crap like that, don't think at all. And don't make me hear it–I haven't the slightest intention to pay any attention what you see. Go to your Cissa and leave me alone–I don't want anything else to do with you. Get lost–preferably in the Forbidden Forest or the Shrieking Shack. And stay there. I hope Remus bites you next month! I hate you, James Potter, and I'll hate you till the day I die! Let me go!" She wrenched herself free, and, her cheekbones sticking out of her face in rage and her hair wild and matted to her head, the furious banshee vanished quickly around the bend of the castle, leaving James behind, quite a bit puzzled, and a blond form familiar to both of them behind the tree very delighted.  
When Lily was sure he wasn't following her, she stepped inside the outside of the Forbidden Forest, breathing hard. She twisted around and examined her arm. She hadn't thought they were that evident; but they obviously were. Groaning, Lily sank down onto the roots of a tree and stayed there until it grew dark outside, searching her mind frantically for a good excuse, one that Dumbledore would hopefully buy if the matter was called to his attention.   
The shadows were growing longer and longer as Lily walked back to Gryffindor Tower, disheartened and scared as she thought of what might happen if James butted in and took this mess to the Ministry, and if the Ministry believed him, what would they do to her father? Lips white, she pushed the portrait open (clam chowder) and found herself face to face with someone she'd already spoken to that day and sincerely wished she hadn't.   
"What are you doing here?"   
"I'm a Gryffindor. I have the right to be."   
"But not to block my way."   
"Wanna bet?"   
"All right. Your life against my nail clippings. They're worth about the same thing."   
Serena's eyes narrowed. "Excuse me?"   
"Fine. Toenail clippings, if you're so set against fingernails."   
"You think you're so wonderful, don't you? So great and smart and brilliant, don't you?"   
"I don't have to think. I know."   
Serena blocked her again as Lily tried to get by. "You've got problems of your own. I heard every word of what you said to James this afternoon near the lake. Every single word. Your family's a mess, your father abuses you as much he can, with his half-cracked mind, your mother's rotting away in the ground, and you've inflicted violence on anyone you can. You should be expelled for even hitting someone, and I'll make sure you are."   
Lily simply stared at her aggressor, effectively enraging her to the point of almost madness. When Serena was practically speechless, Lily gave a deep, low, perfect bow, and quoted to Serena the words she had once wanted badly to tell someone.   
"I apologize again for all my shortcomings."  
With that, she pushed past the Barbie with the contorted, melted features and left the common room, all of whose inhabitants (five) were expecting her to attack Serena. They were all disappointed when she didn't, but still, a tiny bit of admiration was among the disappointment. And Serena knew what was going through their minds.   
She pinched her lips close together, and, with the attention of Gryffindor Tower on her, for no reason at all except hurt vanity, she pulled Lily back and slapped her hard in the face, leaving a red mark.   
Lily shook her head and put her hand up to her cheek. "Cissa, dear, we need to teach you how to fight. Now this–" she continued, not losing her cool, "this is,–" With a smooth movement, she removed Serena's legs from under her and pinned her arms together–"Cissa dear,–" she pulled Serena's green silk scarf from around her neck and stuffed it into Serena's mouth–"this is how one fights without hurting oneself." Effectively having pinned Serena to the ground without inflicting her any harm except a hurt ego, Lily stood back up and walked towards her dormitory for the third time, not bothering to change her languid, slightly bored expression. And it infuriated Serena even more to realize that Lily hadn't responded to any of her jibes, taunts, and not the way she had wanted to after she had hit her. That very evening, James approached her again. Lily was on her bed, reading Sofies Welt, a philosophy history slash novel, and she was a bit peeved when James disturbed her, to say nothing of disconcerted. "I thought I told you I never wanted to speak to you again?"   
He shrugged. "I need to talk to you."   
"I meant what I said."   
"Lil, I need to talk to you." Lily didn't respond. She turned the page, coming to the description of Democrates."   
"I told you I wanted to talk to you! The least you could do is put that stupid book away and give me some time to talk!"   
Lily turned another page. "What is time?" He started to speak, then stopped. When a minute had passed, Lily spoke again. "I thought so. Now go away. I've already talked to you, and it's the last time I intend to do so. Leave; this is a girls' dorm!"   
"I will go to Dumbledore unless you tell me the truth."   
It was a sort of satisfaction to see the paleness that jumped into her cheeks, and the fright that came into her eyes.   
"Why? Why do you even bother? It's none of your concern!"   
"Yes, it is. You're my friend."   
"No, I'm not! I don't want to be! You–"   
"I what?" He had a hold over her and he knew it, and just for that, she could have killed him gladly.

Lily half-sighed, half-whimpered. "This is blackmail!"   
He grinned. "I know! I've been looking for your vulnerable part for ages…ever since I met you, in fact!"   
Lily raised her eyebrows. "Then either you're really bad at it or I'm very good at hiding it."   
"You're very good."   
"Not modest at all, are we? You didn't say a word about your being bad at it."   
"Nope. I'm not. Not you nor me." He stopped, then went on. "Notice you didn't deny it."   
"James, you're doing this for a reason, and I want to know it right now."   
"Oh, right! Almost forgot!" Lily could have kicked herself. "So–you gonna tell me?"   
Lily frowned. "Of course, you don't know if what I'll tell you is the truth…"   
"I'll find out if it isn't, and then I'll just drop by Dumbledore's office and mention, among other things, how nicely the last Quidditch match went."   
Lily aimed a blow at his head, but he warded it off easily, still grinning. He knew he had her cornered, and he was enjoying every minute of it. Lily wasn't. It was taking all of her acting skill to not break out in either hysterical, unprompted laughter or just completely go insane and start throwing a sort of fit. She was frightened, frightened past anything she could imagine, and her stomach was wrenching itself together, making her feel somewhat nauseated.   
But, pushing that and the lump in her throat into the back of her mind, she cut and pasted a brilliant smile to paste on her face, twinkling eyes, and a carefree character. She did such a good job with the pasting part that James couldn't have pierced her laughing façade if he'd tried, which he didn't. Even though he noticed she wasn't exactly as usual; more cheerful, actually, than was normal.   
"Lil, I want an answer. You're telling me what went on! Believe it or not, I'm just a tiny bit worried."   
"I'll go with the 'or not'. But all right, all right, come on." She jumped off of the bed and started out the door.   
"Hey, where're you going?"   
Lily half-turned. "Idiot! This is a public girls' dormitory!"   
"Oh." He shrugged. "All right, then, if you don't want half the world to hear…" Getting to his feet, he followed her out and led her through the house-elves' door.  
They emerged in an empty, unused wing of Hogwarts. It was a long, dark hallway; no torches had been here for ages. Lined with mildew and damp with age, it was drafty and disgusting. Lily shivered.   
"What is this place?"   
James grinned. "Me and Sirius discovered it one day when we were cutting class. Come on!" He grasped a handle in the wall, which Lily hadn't noticed at all, and pulled it out.   
The door swung open to reveal another, darker hallway, though slightly warmer, and James grabbed her wrist and pulled her inside, closing the door after them. They went on for a few seconds, then, obviously spotting something on one of the walls, James pushed on it, and a tiny crack of yellow grew to a huge rift. He had pushed another door open, and Lily had to stifle a gasp as she walked inside.   
It was a rather large room, carpeted with rugs Lily recognized, though instead of the Gryffindor lion and red and gold design, they sported a snake and a silver and gold rim that Lily was only too familiar with. The chairs in there were also a dark green, though they had been covered as well as was possible with all sorts of blankets other than green and black. The walls were draped with blankets, too, and Lily caught sight of a sort of bump underneath one. James pushed her inside and locked the door.   
"Like it?"   
Lily raised her eyebrows. "Is that a Slytherin rug I see before me?"   
He grinned. "Yeah. We knew their password last year, so, naturally…but they had to change it this year. I wish I knew why they kept doing that!"   
Lily folded her arms. "I wonder why!"   
He shrugged, pulling out a chair. "There is that. But pull up a seat, my lady!" He pointed towards one of three armchairs.   
Lily frowned. "Correctly, that would be; 'Seateth thyself, my fair maiden, and sojourn while I weary thee with my talk.' Technically, too, you also should pull out my chair for me and bow, but I won't hold you to it."   
"Good. But sit, woman!"   
She obeyed, with a sullen countenance.   
"So–tell me, what's been going on with you?"  
In an instant, Lily's smile dropped, her face went white, and James was shocked terribly at the changes that came over her features in those few seconds.   
"Lil! I didn't mean–Lily, it's all right!" He knelt in front of her and put two hands on her shoulders, shaking her slightly. "Lily!"   
She snapped out of it and stared down at him. "I'm all right!"   
He frowned. "Liar."   
Lily gulped a few times and stiffened. "You're really making me tell you this?"   
Nodding, James pulled out his wand and made some diluted pink liquid materialize in the air next to her. "Of course. Take it."   
She frowned but accepted, and next minute she hand spit it out onto the front of his robes, coughing. "What–what was that?"   
James shrugged. "Diluted cherry wine."   
"WHAT!?"   
"It's what my mom drinks whenever she feels sick."   
Lily glared at him. "And since when am I your mother?"   
"I just thought it might help."   
"Diluted wine for a thirteen-year-old? James, what are you planning to be when you grow up?"   
He grinned at that. "A Quidditch player for England."   
She sniffed. "Good thing you're not planning on being a doctor. I'd feel sorry for your patients."   
"Speaking of patients…" He took the glass away from her and replaced it with pumpkin juice–"What about you?"   
Lily sighed. There was no way out of this–this maelstrom–and she could only trust to all that was holy to him that he would keep his mouth shut.   
"I'm waiting!"

"Damn you!" She jumped up and made for the doorway, but he caught her sleeve. "One word. Dumbledore."   
He was a bit pleased and a bit frightened at the expressions that fled across her face, ending with a resigned one. Lily sank back down into her armchair, exhausted as if she had just run twenty miles.   
"All right. I give. Is that door soundproof?"   
He nodded. "That's one of the good parts about this room."   
"All right," Lily said, for the second time. "All right." Taking a deep breath, she plunged into her narrative of the last month…  
The only thing she didn't tell the truth about was the place she had gotten the burns–she explained to him that she'd left a pot on the stove with boiling water inside, left the room, and come back to find the bottom of the pot red-hot, and when she tried to remove the pot from the stove, droplets of hot metal splattered everywhere, burning holes in the carpet. Several bits had landed on her, too, and that was where she had received the burns from.   
When she finally stopped, she was even more exhausted and tentative than she had been, and he was speechless. James simply sat back on his heels, absorbing everything she had just told him, trying to comprehend, trying to understand, and more shocked than anything else.   
"Lily, I–"   
"Hum?" She was sipping the rest of her pumpkin juice wearily, head leaning back on the cushions.   
"I–I didn't realize–Lil, I'm so sorry! I really wish I hadn't asked you–oh man, did I make a mess of things!" He sighed, and Lily agreed with jerking nods.   
"You certainly did, you nosy little git!" She didn't really mean it, though.   
"Lil, all I can say is that I'm sorry. Really sorry."   
"You'd better be. And if you've hidden anyone in here to be a witness or something, or if anyone heard this, you're dead, rotting fish."   
"I thought the expression was 'dead meat.'"   
"James, dear, fish goes bad faster and smells worse. Poor Richard's Almanack– 'Fish, like visitors, smell in three days'."   
He threw his hands into the air. "Lil, I promise, I'm never telling anyone about this. Not even if we get in a huge fight–I promise; I won't tell."   
"You didn't have to. Promise, that is; I never really thought you would."   
"Really?" His face lit up. "You think that much of me?"   
"Sit down. You're getting ahead of yourself. It's just that you're not the kind of person that gossips. Neither is Sirius or Remus. Now Peter–that's a different story!"   
"What–why?"   
"He'll tell anyone anything to get into their good graces. Oh, don't look so scandalized–you know he would!"   
James dropped his frown. "I suppose he would."  
Lily nodded. "Finally, you're beginning to see reason!"   
"Reason means saying yes to whatever you say, right?"   
"Right. And right now, I have to go–go as in leave."   
"Why?"   
Looking at her wris ch, Lily sniffed. "Because it's one o'clock in the morning, genius!"   
"Oh." James helped her out of her chair, then led her to the doorway. "Lil, I want you to know I was serious."   
"About what? Blackmail?"   
"No…" He kicked the carpet nervously. "About–SIRIUS BLACK; WHAT ON EARTH!?"   
Both of them jumped. Outside, Sirius had been leaning against the door, and as James opened the door, Sirius fell in. He quickly jumped up, dusting off his robes and grinning half-heartedly.   
"So–James, what were you serious about?"   
"Well–see, her father had this drinking problem she didn't tell anyone else about, and–Oops!" He slapped his forehead with his hand. "I'm an idiot!"   
"I wonder where you'd get an idea like that." Lily had folded her arms sarcastically.   
Both of the boys had turned to her. "Lil–" James was stunned, mostly from shock at his tongue.   
Lily was simply staring at him, not screaming, not hitting, not glaring. Just staring deeply into his eyes with two bottomless wells of hurt.   
"James, how could you? After I trusted you!"   
He was stuck. He would have much preferred a temper outbreak over this–this accusation–this that he knew was true. He hated himself for doing it, he hated everything right now except the betrayed eyes in front of him.   
"Lil–I–I'm sorry–I–"   
She dropped her eyes, turned them to the floor, to the walls. "Never mind. It wasn't your fault."   
He stared. "It wasn't?"   
"No." She blinked hard. "I should have known not to trust you. It's not your fault–not at all. I was stupid. Please forget everything I said–well, you don't have to. If this gets all around the school, it's my fault."   
It was that speech that most condemned him in his eyes. She wasn't blaming him–simply taking something that was his fault onto her own small shoulders. Sirius took this moment to vanish into the shadows.  
"Lily, I'm so sorry! It slipped out–really, it did! I can't think of anything I regret more!"   
"Neither can I. I–" her voice broke–"I'm going to bed."   
"No!" He caught her by the crook of her arm. "Lily, no! I–really–I can't begin to tell you how sorry I am–Lily, please at least look at me!"   
Next instant, he wished he hadn't. The eyes full of every aspect of human pain were pointed straight at his, seeming to pierce through his shallow layer and disclosing the most inconstant part of humanity there ever was found. James could almost feel what she was–almost.   
"Lily, please! I've never been so sorry for anything in my life! You have to believe me!"   
She turned away. "I'm going to bed. Goodnight. Please don't follow me." With that, she effectively cut off any possibility of his detaining her any longer, and disappeared down the dark corridor. James sat down, gripping his hair in his hands as Sirius emerged.   
"Well, you certainly made a mess of that one."


	30. Chapter XXX

"No kidding! Did you see her eyes! God, I hope I never make her look like that again…and she really trusted me, too! I could kill myself for that!"   
Sirius frowned. "Suicide for Cissa's worst enemy? I'd rethink that. I'll forget you said that, if you want me to."   
James shrugged. "I don't care about Cissa right now–don't care at all–did you see how badly I hurt her? I'll never forget that as long as I live!"   
Sirius' frown deepened as he knelt down next to James. "Well–as long as we're on the subject, what about her dad's drinking problem?"   
James simply stared at him, stood up, and vanished in the direction Lily had gone. Sirius was alone now.   
"Well, there goes that!"  
Lily didn't sleep at all that night–or, for what was left of the night. She kept tossing and turning under the blankets, berating herself for her stupidity in telling James anything. Why hadn't she just kept her mouth shut? As the night wore into morning, she had replayed every minute of last night's disaster in her mind several times, had watched the first snowflakes fall onto the windowsill, and had hardened her heart even more against possible intrusions.   
When she decided to get out of bed, it was five in the morning, and the snow on the windowsill was three inches high. It was rather cold in the dormitory, so Lily wasted no time getting dressed.   
She quietly tiptoed downstairs and arranged herself in her usual early-morning chair near the fire, and, burying herself in a study of Socrates' ideas and history, she effectively managed to blot out the world around her.   
It surprised James when he came down at six. Lily was dreamily staring at the words on a page; not seeing it and not really looking at it, but more through it. Her face contorted itself into several frowns and wrinkled in a sort of understanding several times, and from time to time she sort of nodded. And, just when he was about to wake her from what he thought was a dream, her mouth twisted into an expression of pain; her eyes squeezed tightly shut, and then–then she opened them wide, staring into James' face, only two inches away from hers.   
She pulled her shoulders out of his grasp. "What?"   
"You all right? You went all weird–like someone was crucifying you or something."   
"Oh." Lily nodded. "I do that sometimes, I'm told. No–it was just–Socrates just drank the Schierlingsbecher."   
James stared. "Who got drunk from what?"   
She shook her head. "Never mind. Go away, please."   
He knelt down in front of her. "Lil, I want to talk to you about last night."  
"That's the last thing I want to talk about. Please go away."   
"Lil, no! I want to explain–"   
"There's nothing go explain. If you don't go, I will."   
He put his hands firmly on her wrists, standing over her. "You're listening to what I have to say."   
Lily didn't glare at him, didn't get angry. She simply stared up at him. "And why should I?"   
His memory flashed back to her hurt eyes that early morning, and he released his hold. "You're right. You shouldn't have to. But would you?"   
Lily determinedly shook her head. "No. I don't want to hear anything about it, and certainly not from you."   
"Oh. I see."   
"No. You don't. You never will. But go to bed or anywhere else–I don't care. Just leave me alone."   
"Lily!"   
"I should think that if you had any decency at all, you'd leave. I don't know how many times I've asked you to do so, but please do."   
"Lil!"   
She sighed and stood up. "I will, then." Ignoring his protestations, she walked out of the common room and down to breakfast.   
The rest of the day passed quickly; time seemed to fly by as the rest of the Gryffindors had a large snowball fight out on the lawn and had their hot cocoa party in the common room afterwards (James and Serena shared a cup). Lily didn't participate; she stayed in the darkest corner of the common room that she could find, ignoring any invitations to join in. She didn't consider herself hurt or betrayed at all; she simply had had enough of the whole human race and was sick and tired of everyone in that room.   
Tuesday, Herbology fell out because of the amount of snow; no one felt like traipsing through three feet of icy masses, much less Professor Groves. So that period Lily spent in the library, finishing her Astronomy homework. She didn't bother to look up when someone else dumped a stack of books on the table, making it shake madly.   
"Oops." He sat down and pulled out a sheet of parchment inside one of the books and started copying down something. Lily noticed he kept shooting nervous glances over at her, and she finally put her quill down and looked up.   
"Anything else you want to tell me?"   
He started. "Um–er–"   
"I thought as much. Anything else?"   
"Oh–He grabbed the sheet of parchment sitting next to him. "Mind if you help me?"   
Lily looked James up and down, finally turning back to her own work. "No."   
"Lil, come on!"   
"I said no."   
He couldn't get another word out of her for the rest of the day, and he couldn't manage to make her look up, either.  
When the Christmas holidays came looming up ahead, Lily was relieved. She had worried herself almost sick over her father, since the Ministry owl had had an accident with a power line and Alisande was refusing to be sent out. She hadn't received any messages from her father for six days, so, when one morning at breakfast, an owl unknown to her dropped a letter onto her lap, with Lily, from Petunia on the front, a great load fell from her mind. Immediately, she ripped it open , scanned the first line, and fell back in her chair, face white as death, lips almost transparent. Everyone around her screamed and jumped; Eva tried slapping her cheeks as Amanda and Sirius were supporting her head.   
"Lily! Lily! Help–someone!" Eva was growing almost hysterical, as were Vanessa and Amanda. It came as a relief to everyone when Professor McGonagall swept over and asked what the matter was.

Amanda was trying to hold back a scream. She pointed weakly at Lily, who was half-lying limply in her chair. "Professor–she–she–she just dropped back like that–Professor, look at her!"   
Professor McGonagall frowned. Conjuring a stretcher, she levitated Lily onto it and bore her out of the Great Hall, in the direction of the hospital wing. She waved everyone else back sharply, and they arrived in the hospital wing several minutes later. Madam Pomfrey immediately whooshed over.   
"Dear, dear! Minerva, what on earth…"   
"We're not sure. Poppy, you wouldn't mind…?"   
"Of course not. I've got this under control. But what happened?"   
"I'm about to go find out. Don't let anyone in to see her, now, Poppy!"   
Madam Pomfrey frowned. "This is a hospital wing. I–"   
Professor McGonagall cut her off. "Thank you, Poppy. I should be back soon–call me if she wakes up before I come." She swooped out, leaving Lily and the plump nurse behind.   
Madam Pomfrey lost no time in magicking Lily into a white nightgown and levitating her inside the sheets of a bed. She was momentarily puzzled, however, by the bit of paper clamped tightly in Lily's hand. Trying to extract it, she only succeeded in tearing off about an inch of crumpled paper, but she dismissed it as she put a few cold compresses on her patient's head, trying to mop up the sweat on her forehead.  
Lily woke up several hours later. She recognized the curtains of the hospital wing, then the note clutched in her hand. Opening it and carefully unfolding the note, she read it again, steeling herself this time.   
  
_Lily,   
  
Dad died this morning. He was coming home from work and a car hit him. You're to come home immediately by order of the Ministry and the orphanage. That's where we're going now; Dad's parents and Mum's family have no room for us, so we'll have to move in there. And the orphanage people aren't letting you go to your school, either; they're saying that the public school around the corner is just as good. The Ministry might be able to fix that, but I doubt it. You're to come home immediately. No excuses.   
  
Lily let the letter sink onto the sheets. It wasn't a bad dream; she hadn't imagined everything; her father was dead and her mother was buried. Closing her eyes, she slumped onto her pillow, sobbing without tears.   
Madam Pomfrey let Professor Dumbledore in at about five. He immediately came over to Lily's bed and sat down in the chair beside her.   
"Miss Evans?"   
Lily sat up. "Professor! Professor!" She was breathing in small jerks now. "My father–my father–they say he's–that–" She flung herself back onto the pillows, crying for her father.   
He put a hand on her shoulder, and Lily felt strength from his hand pour into her frame. "Lily. What is it?"   
It was the first time he had called her by her first name, and something about that calmed her, as if she had found a new, a wonderful friend. Lily sat up and pulled out the note, handing it to Dumbledore. He read it, frowning, then looked back at her with the utmost pity in his eyes.   
"Lily?"   
She hugged her knees close to her. "Yes, Professor?"   
"I want you to stay here for a few days. When Christmas vacation comes around, we will send you home just as you planned to go." He stood up. "And–Lily?"   
"Yes, Professor?"   
"I suggest you receive visitors. Unwelcome as they may be, you may find comfort from them." He smiled kindly, opened the door, and swept out of the hospital wing.   
Contrary to Dumbledore's advice, Lily refused to see anyone she didn't have to. Only Eva came into her room, to give her updates and her work. Once, Abigail came, but she didn't know Lily as well and was unnerved by the black around Lily's eyes.  
Lily also hadn't eaten since she had heard the news, which was five days ago. She didn't feel hungry, she said, and the only thing Madam Pomfrey could make her drink was a kind of leek broth. Lily simply played with her food listlessly if she was offered anything else. And so, in that short space of time, she started to lose weight; she'd already lost seven, and she wasn't looking to be gaining anything anytime soon.   
One morning, more dead than alive (mentally), she was dozing on her pillow when the door creaked open and someone sat down on the chair next to the bed. Lily immediately awoke, then glared at the figure that had just walked in.   
"He's dead now; happy? You can tell everyone now how horrible he was."  
James put a hand over hers, but she jerked it away, quickly.   
"Lil, I'm sorry."   
"I don't care what you think! I don't care what you say you think or feel! I told you I never wanted to speak to you again!"   
He slumped visibly. "Lil, I thought–well, maybe you could forgive me–"   
She cut him off scathingly. "Oh, of course. I'll just trust you again and have you lie to me and spill everything I tell you. Sure; I'm just open to suggestions like that!"   
"Lil, I told you I was sorry about that! It slipped!"   
"And I'm making sure nothing else slips again. Ever again."   
He looked up. "You're seriously planning never, ever to speak to me?"   
"Not nicely, no. Like this is fine–this is partly amusing."   
He took her hand again and didn't let her jerk it away. "Lil, I know you're upset about your dad–your mom, everything–but can't you just give me one last chance?"   
"You child. I'm not giving last chances, not after the last ten thousand you've gotten and managed to mess up."   
"Lily, I told you I was sorry!"   
"Every single time. I know."   
"So–so–"_

"And every single time, you managed to do something else even worse. I'm done with last chances!"   
He shook his head. "Lil, mind if I get back to you on this? You're overworked and stressed and–"   
"DON'T YOU DARE TELL ME WHAT I AM AND AM NOT! YOU DON'T KNOW ME! AND IF I HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH IT, YOU NEVER WILL!" She was shrieking with anger, her hair was flying around her face as if in a strong wind, and she was sitting straight up in bed. She would have continued, but Madam Pomfrey bustled into the room, hands clamped over her ears. Lily stopped, sat back, and fell onto her pillows. With a sort of satisfaction, she saw Madam Pomfrey hustle James out and put down a bowl of thick soup on the nightstand next to her bed. She didn't bother to try to make Lily drink it; last time she had, the soup had landed on the floor. Simply setting it down, she threw a comment over her shoulder.   
"Professor Dumbledore will be letting you out of the hospital wing tomorrow." She stalked back to her office–Lily was the only really unsatisfactory patient she'd had yet. If anything, Lily had gotten worse during her stay, getting temperamental and throwing pillows on the floor, crying tearlessly for no apparent reason, and waking up screaming at night. If anyone had asked Lily what was going on–she was more confined that ever. She hadn't been let out of her bed for five days, and she was aching for movement. Sitting still in this prison-like room, with the white walls glaring at her for her only diversion, she had dropped into fitful sleep.   
Sleep, for her, invariably meant seeing her father walk down the street, only to be hit by a speeding red something, and she would see him on the sidewalk, with blood spilling out of his skull. And if it wasn't that, it was her mother–she would see her mother driving their car under a bridge or a tunnel, and then the building would crash onto her, even though that wasn't at all how her mother died. And she would scream–see her mother or father breathe his or her last–once it had been their last–breath, see their chests stop moving, and she would start to scream and scream…  
Yes, it was a definite relief to Madam Pomfrey to have Lily leave her ward. When she was allowed to, the next morning, she simply dashed out, not waiting for anyone else. She had grabbed the book she was reading (still Sofies Welt, but now she was studying the part dealing with Democrates) and flitted out of the room. It was seven in the morning and still dark outside, it being November, but that didn't prevent Lily from hurriedly putting two pieces of toast together, slipping them into her pocket, and dashing outside.   
It was beautiful–the moonlight, almost iridescent, was throwing long, dark, indigo shadows onto the snow, and the fresh coat of white on the ground was soft to look at; none of the usual blinding white. Lily simply walked about a bit, enjoying the use of her stiff legs and reveling in the comfortable chillness of the morning. And when the sun peeked over the lake, throwing red, pink, orange, and golden streams of light over everything, Lily wished she had her drawing materials. Sighing with pure contentedness, she let herself fall in the middle of the lake; the ice on it was four inches thick and growing. She didn't feel any coldness at all; on the contrary, she flipped her book open and began to read.   
She heard a few shouts when it began to get later in the morning, but it wasn't till Eva started running clear across the grounds and ice to get to her friend, nearly hugging the life out of her, that she dimly realized how much this one friend, at least, cared for her.   
She was playing chess with Eva later that evening, telling her friend, shortly, what had stood in the letter. Eva's mouth was partly hanging open in horror, but she kept her comments to herself, thankfully. They were to leave for home the next morning–Eva and Vanessa were going home over the holidays so they could offer Lily and her sister a temporary home–, and Lily wasn't looking forward to this at all. She delayed getting into bed as long as she could, and when they finally dropped off, at around one, she couldn't have cursed the coming morning more heartily than she had wanted to.   
Shoulders drooping, Lily threw her things listlessly into her trunk. She was half-swaying on her feet; the prospect of a Muggle orphanage frightened her only a bit less than the loss of both her parents. She boarded the train a half-hour before it left, and she was thankful when Eva and Vanessa joined her in a compartment, so as to keep her mind off of her problems.  
They were playing Exploding Snap when the compartment door was flung open. Vanessa immediately hid her face behind her discarded robes, since she had been hit in the face with the blowings up of the cards several times and her eyebrows were scorched.   
Severus stepped into the compartment. "Lily? You too busy?"   
"Hum?" Lily stood up, brushing off her robes. "No. What–that is, why?"   
He shrugged. "Can I talk to you?"   
"Sure. Shoot!"   
"Privately." He shot a glance at Eva and Vanessa, and they gave knowing smiles and left the compartment, leaving the curtains on the compartment door open. Severus rolled his eyes and yanked them shut, then took his place in a seat across from Lily.   
"Lily? I–I heard about your dad–"   
"Who hasn't?" She saw his somewhat hurt face and amended quickly. "I'm sorry; I'm just not dealing with that perfectly."   
He nodded. "I think I understand. But–well, I just wanted you to know–well, if you don't have anywhere else to go, either me or Lucius would be glad to keep you."   
Lily smiled. "Thanks. A lot. But I think I've got a place to stay."   
He frowned. "Really? Where?"   
Pulling her face into an obviously false grin, Lily spoke in an oddly perky voice. "I'm going to a Muggle orphanage, where they'll let me go to a wonderful public school around the corner! Think of that! I'm going to have so much fun!" She finished, and her smile dropped like a dead hippogriff.   
Severus' eyes widened. "Really? That's terrible! You mean–you mean you're not coming back to Hogwarts?"   
Lily shrugged. "The Ministry's trying to work something out."   
He sat back. "That's terrible!"   
"They'll probably not let me keep Alisande, since they don't understand what owls're for. This is going to stink! You'll have to teach your owl to come at night."   
"Yeah…" He waved that aside, a bit preoccupied. "Lily?"   
"Mm?"   
"Remember that note I gave you, at the beginning of last summer?"

"No."   
"At King's Cross?"   
"Oh, yeah, that one!" Lily smacked herself in the head. "I never opened it. Oops."   
"You know where it is?"   
"Sort of." She shrugged. "I'll try to find it once I get home–or, once I get to my residence. I don't know if I'll even go home."   
"Ah." He knitted his fingers together. "Well–read it, if you find it, and answer me, please."   
"Can't you just tell me?"   
"Nah–can't. On second thought–" he pulled a piece of parchment out and scribbled something on it–"this might work better. It's the newer edition."   
Lily accepted it, laughed softly, and put it in her pocket. "Same instructions as last time?"   
"Same instructions," he agreed.   
"All right. Eva and 'Nessa, you can stop listening at the door now!"   
Rather sheepishly, Eva and Vanessa walked inside and took their places as Severus left. The instant he did, the twins bombarded Lily with questions.   
"What'd he tell you?"   
"Did he ask you out?"   
"Did he tell you anything good?"   
"What happened?"   
"Lily, did he–"   
Lily stood up, quickly, knocking her book to the ground. She had caught sight of King's Cross through the window, and she was closer to fainting than she had been in the last few days. Eva and Vanessa spun around, saw the station, and shut their mouths, quickly, at the sight of Lily's white face.   
Gulping audibly, Lily stepped off of the train, dragging her trunk along with her. She accepted a trolley Vanessa rolled over to her, and, eyes shut tightly, not wanting to not see her father when she walked through the barrier, she stepped in line, waiting for her turn to be shooed through the barrier by a guard.   
When she had gritted her teeth, she walked through, slowly. Opening her eyes, she frantically searched the crowd. One face stood out–a laughing, welcoming face–she stopped walking–she couldn't; she was frozen to the spot–and then, she felt an excruciating pain hit her in the lower back and ankles, and she fell senseless back onto the trolley behind her.  
Lily opened her eyes. Someone was lightly shaking her–Lily tried to sit up but found she couldn't.   
"Dad?"   
Her father, with the familiar scent of coffee and pipe tobacco clinging to his clothes, hugged her to his chest. "Shh. Shh. It's all right. It's all right."   
Lily, for the first time since her mother's funeral, allowed herself to cry, to cry hot tears that soaked her father's suit. She was too exhausted to ask if this was a dream–if it wasn't, she didn't want to find out. She never wanted to wake up from this–from the steadying arms that were carrying her through the packed train station. Clutching madly the linen front of her father's shirt, the tears dropped from her bristly lashes, and, helpless and weak, with a sort of fire in her ankles and spine, she felt herself being carried to the car.   
When her father placed her inside, the instant that he let her go and fastened the seat belt around her, she fell into another blackout and woke up only when he picked her up, carrying her into the house.   
Mr. Evans opened the door with a quick twist, pulled the key out of the lock, and carried his frail, thin, almost lifeless daughter up the stairs to her room, where he placed her carefully on her bed. She opened her eyes briefly, said only one word–"Dad–" then closed her eyes and let her head fall back. He placed a light hand on her forehead, then, satisfied, he left the room, closing the door softly.   
He went back down, where several parents were gathered–Amanda's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Doylen, their children, Severus and Lucius. He waved them to chairs around the dining room table, then put cups of coffee or cocoa in front of everyone. Placing his hands in his lap, he looked around at the children.   
"Can someone please fill me in here?"   
Everyone had been almost as stunned to see Mr. Evans as Lily had been, so they were a bit anxious. But Eva finally spoke.   
"Sir–we thought–Lily got a message from Petunia–saying you were dead–and they had to go to an orphanage–"   
Mr. Evans frowned. "Petunia sent this?"   
Vanessa nodded. "Yes, sir."   
They all turned towards the shy and scared sister sitting in the corner. Now, however, she was violently shaking her head.  
"I didn't send that! I never did! I promise! Dad!"   
They all looked at each other, and the silence was again broken by Mr. Evans. "And Lily's been believing I was dead for how long?"   
Severus, Lucius, Eva, Vanessa, and Amanda shot questioning glances at each other–then Severus spoke. "About a week or two, sir."   
"Ah." Mr. Evans stroked his chin thoughtfully. "And you've no idea where this came from?"   
"No, sir." All of the five had responded simultaneously.   
Later in the evening; eight o'clock to be exact, the doctor summoned by the Doylens' had gone, with the prescription of 'as many full meals as she can hold' to be administered as often as possible. Mr. Evans was sitting by his daughter's bedside, and she, ankles and back bound in a half-cast, half-bandage, stared at him while he talked to her, slowly, softly, explaining as much as he could.   
"Lily, I'm so sorry you had to go through this."   
Lily just stared at him, with nothing else than naked gratitude in her eyes. "Daddy, I was so scared."   
He leaned forward and took her in his arms, hugging her tightly. "I know, dear. I know."   
A few days later, three, to be exact, Lily could move about the house again. She and Petunia were busy as house-elves, getting everything ready for a Christmas Eve party they were hosting for many of Lily's Hogwarts friends and parents. And every time Lily remembered Severus' note, she was always running down the hallway to retrieve rising bread from the oven or whipping egg whites.

And it wasn't till the night before Christmas, when Lily was about to fall asleep, that she remembered what he'd given her.   
Tiptoeing over to the jeans she'd worn that day, she pulled the wrinkled bit of parchment out of her pocked and unfolded it, slipping underneath her covers again.  
Lily felt her jaw drop. Her eyebrows lifted almost up into the bangs that reached down to her shoulders, and she re-read the note.   
  
_Lily,   
  
I know this is a really unopportune time to ask you this, with your father and all, but I wondered if this might help any. All right–to get right down to it–if you wouldn't be to busy this year, would you mind very much if we officially registered as a couple?_  
  
It remained the same. She hadn't made a mistake.   
But, good grief, she was only thirteen! How could he expect her to start with the same things James and Serena were, with the drinking out of the same cup and everything else. Lily set the note aside and buried her face in her pillow, thinking hard.   
I'm too young for this, she thought, there's no question about that. I'm not ready for anything like that, either. And I certainly don't like him enough for that. He's my friend, sure, but this–this was taking this a bit too far. And, besides–I can't handle this on top of everything else–on top of all the responsibility that sort of had been transferred to her after her mother died. I can't deal with this, she thought. I know I can't. But, help; how do I tell him that?   
She rolled over, closed her eyes for a second, and when she opened them, it was seven in the morning of Christmas Eve Day, and the warm smell of last night's rising bread was drifting through her room.   
Lily sat bold upright. Running her fingers through her tousled hair, she remembered what she had read last night. She pondered over it while she drew the bread from the oven and let the cold water run over her in the shower, while she decorated the dining room with the macramé and straw ornaments and wreaths her mother had made a long time ago, while she and her sister placed the straw ornaments and candleholder clamps onto the Christmas tree in the living room, while they set up the small, wooden Nativity scene in the windowsill, while they dragged logs into the fireplace and placed small and large presents under the tree, while she set the large table in the dining room with the old china and the linen tablecloth embroidered with sprigs of holly. And by the time Lily changed out of her dusty, dirty T-shirt and jeans into the dark blue dress her mother had always worn, she hadn't found a satisfactory explanation to give Severus.   
She smiled when she drew the old blue dress out of its box in the attic. They had always celebrated Christmas in somewhat of the German tradition in their house, but some traditions they had invented themselves. They had no grandfather to dress up as the Weihnachtsmann,, so, when Petunia and Lily were young, Mrs. Evans had donned her blue robe from one of her plays, and she played the role of Mary, presenting the gifts from others to her children, just as Lily believed Mary must have done to her own son.  
Lily wasn't exactly religious; she and her family didn't attend church on Sundays, but still, there was a sort of magic quite different from what she learned at Hogwarts flowing through the old traditions, something that touched a chord inside of her and wrapped her in flowing warmth. And never once had the traditions grown stale; they simply became richer with each passing year.   
The blue gown hadn't belonged to a Mary character; what Mrs. Evans really had played was Queen Guenevere in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and it had all sorts of medieval trappings on it. But, when the trinkets and emblems were removed, it was simply a deep blue dress reaching down to the ankles, bound at the waist with a black sash embroidered in gold, with the ends hanging down and trailing behind her as she walked. Lily was pleased to find that, even though the dress trailed quite a bit, when she took the hem up in the front a bit, it fit her marvelously, still trailing, but this time gracefully, in the back. And when Lily had thrown the large, old, patched blanket around her shoulders, the only thing missing to make it a perfect picture was a mule or a donkey beside her.   
She hadn't done anything much with her hair; simply tied it into a long braid that she pulled forward over her right shoulder. Her eyes were lit with fiery excitement and quenched with her unshed tears, remembering the years when her mother had done this. Removing every single bit of jewelry, Lily went downstairs, quickly pulling a sheet of Plätzchen out of the oven and setting stacks of Lebkuchen in small baskets at random places in the house, where guests could help themselves.   
Petunia and her father were ready at six-thirty, a half-hour before everyone was asked to arrive. Her father looked nice, Lily thought, with his dark suit and cream shirt. Petunia had slipped a sprig of holly into his buttonhole, and the scent of his Indian tobacco smoke for his pipe was, as usual, clinging to him along with the holiday smells. Petunia looked nicer than usual, too; in a golden-tan dress that made her usually mousy-brown hair shine with a sort of golden tint to it. The sisters caught each other's eye, smiled nervously, and, as they were placing the last presents under the tree, the front doorbell rang.   
Lily almost laughed to see Petunia's nervousness at meeting so many wizards at one time, and she sprinted lightly to the door, holding a candle in each hand; the candles placed inside the golden candlesticks she had inherited from her mother. With the alacricity of a spirit, she threw the door open, letting the golden light from the candles shine out onto the new-fallen snow.   
"Welcome, welcome, strangers!" She laughed lightly and pulled Eva and Severus inside, beckoning the rest to follow.Shutting the door softly, Lily busied herself with removing everyone's coats and cloaks, hanging them up on the racks lining the hall and brushing snowflakes out of Miranda, Amanda, Eva and Vanessa's hair. The twins were dressed in matching dark red robes tied at the waist with a thin green sash, and Amanda wore a calf-length cream-colored skirt with an emerald-colored blouse.  
All three of them looked very nice, as did the boys, who had come without their parents, who had gone to other parties. Lily had to swallow a giggle when she welcomed them in. Lucius was wearing long black robes, as were Severus, John, and Nigel, but they reminded her of medieval monks, with the hoods drawn over their heads. But when they had removed the cloaks, they looked more normal, and they had to laugh along with her as she drew them into the living room.


	31. Chapter XXXI

This last part of the post was sooo much fun to write…I've been getting rather sick of Serena, and she sorta deserved this.  Anyway, thanks so much to everyone that reviewed this (can't believe that I have thirty-one chapters up and only 14 reviews…lol; j/k)!!

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They had all been carrying an assortment of packages, as were everyone's parents. And when they had set them underneath the tree, grabbed a few of the cookies lying around the house, and settled around the cushion of straw Lily was to sit on, they were all in a more or less holiday mood, infected by the tradition that had seeped its way into the very walls of the house.   
Placing the lit candles on either side of her, Lily pulled the old, leather-bound Bible onto her lap, flipping open the cover with the gilded letters on it, carefully, almost caressing the cover. Petunia, her father, and the other parents settled themselves into the chairs dragged into the living room as Lily began to read.   
Everyone was expecting her to read an English part, all except her won family. The Bible Lily's mother had brought with her from Germany was in German, and, though usually said to be a crude, ugly language, it flowed out of the young reader's mouth and enveloped the listeners in a kind of cloud that made them understand what she was saying. A magical quality surrounding the room almost transported them back to the old town in Israel, two thousand years ago, and when Lily gently shut the book, everyone seemed to wake out of a dream. It had been exactly that way when her mother was in her place, settled on the straw with the blue robes flowing around her, reading to her family, and Lily caught her father wiping a tear from his eye.  
She laughed, a laugh tinkling with the merriness of small bells, and the company awoke out of their thoughts, and Eva started to applaud. Soon, everyone joined in, and, amongst the passing around of hot cocoa with cinnamon sprinkled on top and the round Lebkuchen, Lily flitted about the room, handing out presents, and when she returned to her seat, several people had piled it with packages.   
Lily laughed again, kneeling next to her presents. She took the one on top, a rather small one, carefully tore the silver packaging off, and disclosed a small velvet box. Opening it, she recognized a pair of earrings her mother used to wear; they were a deep lavender with a hanging silver sort of tiny tassel. Looking up to her father, she caught the sadness and the smile on his face, and she jumped up to throw her arms around his neck.   
"Dad, I love you!"   
He hugged her tightly. "Doll, you look just like your mother!"   
Lily knew that was the greatest compliment he could give her, and she hugged him even more tightly.   
Lucius was tapping her on the shoulder, and she whirled around. "Hum?"   
He held a package wrapped in a honey-colored paper. "Open mine?"   
Lily smiled. Peeling the wrapper away, she disclosed a small teddy bear, black, with a frighteningly large grin on his face, crossed eyes, and an even scarier large pink satin bow around every limb. Lily stared incredulously at Lucius, who burst out laughing.   
"Why?–"   
He controlled himself for the moment. "Just so I could see that look on your face! Oh, God; you looked like a deer caught in headlights!"   
Lily rolled her eyes and set the bear aside, who lightly nipped her finger. "Lucius, you have the weirdest sense of humor!"   
"I know! And proud of it!"   
"You pick the strangest things to be proud of. I suppose I should say 'thanks'?"   
"Don't have to. That look on your face was enough!"  
Lily looked up into Severus' face, uncomfortable at his nervous excitement.   
"Severus?"   
"Yes?"   
She sighed and opened the door to her room, going inside and flopping down onto the bed. "Severus, I just don't know. Well–that is, I do, but–"   
"But what?" His half-smile sort of slid.   
"I don't know how to say it."   
He pinched his lips together, dropped his head, but then snapped back up. "Lily, I don't want you to decide in a hurry–if you want to wait till we go back to school, that's fine–"   
Lily stopped him with a sharp movement of her hand. "Severus, it's not that!"   
He frowned. "What is it, then? James? Sirius?"   
She sat back up, scowling. "You deserve to be hit for that. I can't stand that Potter kid. No–it's not that–Severus, I just don't know if–if–if–"   
He bit his lip nervously. "If what?"   
At that moment, Lily abandoned her half-prepared speech. He deserved a bit better than that–as a person, he deserved to be spoken to openly.   
"Severus, I'm not ready for it. Really–I may be in fourth year, granted, but plus I have my grades to keep up, my father to take care of, our home to run–and I think I'm still in a bit of shock. I keep waking up thinking my dad is dead all over again. I just can't handle this."   
He slowly nodded. "I see. But–if you were a normal teen, without any of this mess going on–would you have said yes?"  
Lily inwardly slapped herself. She should have seen that coming.   
"Severus, I don't know. I really don't."   
He nodded, a bit downcast, shoulders slumped. Then he straightened.   
"Lily?"   
"Hum?"   
"Would you discourage me from asking you this again sometime in the future?"   
Lily shrugged. "You can always try–I can't guarantee what I'll say."   
He nodded. "That's all I ask–do you mind if we forget this?"   
"Why?"  
"I don't think we'd be as good friends if we didn't."   
Slowly, hesitating, Lily nodded. "You're right. All right–on this point I'm trusting you. And–Severus!" she called as he was turning to leave her room.   
He whipped around. "Yes?"

She slipped off of the bed. "Severus, I want you to know that this has nothing to do with you personally. It really–I mean, I just couldn't handle it. It has nothing to do with you."   
He smiled. "That means quite a lot, and you should get a hug for that, but your sister's standing in the hallway. Come on down–I need to give you your present." He vanished down the hall, seemingly carefree, but something had happened in those few minutes–something he wanted to ignore, for he knew that if he didn't ignore it and told anyone, he'd be ridiculed beyond the point of ridiculous.  
They returned to school sooner than Lily could have wished, for she had enjoyed her stay at home with her sister and father. There was a good side to everything that had happened–she and Petunia were finally getting along like real sisters, and she had dropped her annoying way of making Lily seem like an idiot. And, the morning of Lily's departure, there were more than a few tears and more than just two hugs. Her father was to drive them to the train station, and Petunia was coming, too. Lily was thankful for that, for her trunk was heavier than usual, as Petunia had insisted that Lily come shopping with her. The black trunk with gold fastenings came close to falling off of the trolley at some turns, and Lily had had to practically throw herself underneath it to keep it from hitting the ground. When they reached the barrier, Lily turned to her family for one last hug. "Bye, Dad. I love you. I'm coming home for Easter, so don't die before that!"   
He smoothed her rumpled hair. "You do the same."   
Petunia hugged her sister tightly. "You'll be sending me lots of owls. Plus you said you'd look up that one recipe for coffee cake."   
Lily grinned. "Of course. And remember not to leave the potatoes in the oven for two hours."   
"It's not my fault they burned black!"   
Lily laughed. "Well, maybe it is. But see you at Easter. And don't kill yourself!"   
"Why, I didn't think you cared! But see you–" Lily wheeled her trolley around–"later." With a running start, she pushed the trolley through the barrier and soon stood in front of the steam-puffing, scarlet Hogwarts Express.   
Looking around for her friends, Lily spotted Eva, who was hugging her mother goodbye. She felt a small wrench in her chest as she saw Mrs. Doylen and her daughter, but she wiped it out of her mind as she saw her blond friend hurtle towards her. "Lily! You're here–oh, good! Come on–train's leaving in fifteen minutes and we'd better get into a compartment before they fill up. Come on!" Playfully, she grabbed her friend by her hand and dragged her and the heavy trunk to the last compartment on the train–the only empty one. Within minutes, they were joined by Vanessa and Amanda, Miranda and Nigel. Almost to quickly to see, a pack of Exploding Snap cards were on the floor of the compartment, and they were jumping back every time the cards threatened to explode. The train pulled slowly out of the station, and as it speeded up and they were rocketing through snowy countrysides, Lily was getting pretty good at avoiding scorched bangs, though Miranda's usually silky black sheet was turning frizzled and a bit more gray than usual.  
Nothing eventful happened that trip, and, even though they discussed it for a good three and a half hours, no one knew who could have forged the note. Several thousand suggestions were offered, among them Serena, Sheila, Severus, Lucius, James, Eva, Vanessa, Miranda, Amanda, or Lily. The suggestion that Petunia had sent it was laughed away, for no one in their right mind would try to forge their own handwriting, and the handwriting on the note was a forged version of Petunia's. All in all, they spent a fun and fruitless journey back to school.   
It was snowing heavily as they got off of the train and headed for the horseless carriages at the Hogsmeade train station. Trying their best to keep the almost golf-ball-sized snowflakes out of their eyes and owl cages, the students piled into the carriages and flopped down onto the seats. The ride to Hogwarts seemed to take almost no time. Over the holidays, Lily had written Professor Dumbledore, informing him that her father was still alive and that an orphanage was a bit unnecessary. Dumbledore had asked to speak to her as soon as she arrived at school, so instead of going to dinner, she followed Professor McGonagall up to the headmaster's office. When they stepped inside, Lily noted that he had a new acquisition: a red and gold pheonix flaunting his magnificent plumage in a corner on a perch. As they entered, he threw his head back and let out one beautiful, warming note. As if the pheonix served as a doorbell, Dumbledore opened a door to the right of the visitors and sat down at his desk, waving Professor McGonagall out of the room. Knotting his fingers into a twisted sort of knot, he took in Lily at a glance, noting that, over the holidays, the weight she'd lost in shock had come back, and her ribs weren't showing through her robes. "You are doing well, then, I take it?" Lily smiled. "Yes, sir. Everything's been going wonderfully."   
"And you've started eating again. Madam Pomfrey was worried she would lose your job if you starved to death." His eyes twinkled merrily behind the half-moon shaped glasses.   
"Have you any idea who could have written that letter?"  
Lily shook her head. "No, sir. We–well, we discussed it on the train, but–but, well, it didn't get very far."   
Dumbledore nodded. "I see. Well, I don't think I need to tell you that if we do find that person, he or she will be expelled. And, in the meantime, I want to tell you that every teacher at this school is very proud of the success of your education." His smile made Lily blush with pleased embarrassedness.   
"Sir?"   
"You are one of only twenty-three students that have skipped a grade since this school has been founded and still remained at the top of his or her classes, besides showing potential to skip another. We don't need to tell you how proud we are to be able to teach you."  
Lily turned even redder and dropped her head. "Sir–I–well, thank you."   
Dumbledore stood up, his dark blue robes with silver stars scattered over them swaying as he moved from behind his desk and began sorting books in a bookshelf near a window. "I should suggest that you go downstairs to dinner. It might be over otherwise."  
Lily nodded her head in assent. "Yes, sir. Thank you, sir." Closing the door behind her and returning to Gryffindor Tower, since she wasn't hungry, she undressed quickly and slipped into bed, falling asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.  
She woke up the next morning full of energy and life. It surprised even herself as to where that came from, but she supposed she was simply glad to be back here. She showered and dressed in a hurry, pulling her hair back in a plait that she flung over her shoulder. Slipping into the school robes, Lily grabbed her bag and headed for breakfast, for once she hadn't awakened at six or roundabouts.   
Eva met her near the Great Hall doors and led her to her seat. It was right smack in the middle of the Gryffindor table, and Lily had to stifle several blushes as she noted the stares.

"Eva?"   
"Oh. See, they were expecting you to be going to an orphanage and not come back and stuff, so they're naturally a bit surprised."   
"Oh. But didn't you or anyone else that knew tell them?"   
Eva smiled. "It's none of their business, is it? That is," she amended, shrugging, as she propelled Lily to her chair, "that is, we figured you had a right to tell them, before we butted in."   
Lily helped herself to the milk jug. "Thanks. But you'd better do it–I don't think it's any of their business, either."   
Eva took the pitcher from Lily's hand. "That means that no one's going to find out, unless Dumbledore decides to become a blabbermouth. Which I highly doubt."   
"Dumbledore a blabbermouth about what?" Sirius had leaned over.   
Eva hit his knuckles a sharp rap; they had been inching towards the last bit of stollen on the table. He withdrew his hand, and Eva helped herself.   
"You little git. No, really, what's he a blabbermouth about?"   
Lily set her mouth in a straight line. "Sirius, nose out if you like having one."   
He drew back. "Well, sorry if I've offended your Majesty. I didn't know that simply questioning would provoke such an attack."   
"You should have known better. Eva, don't tell him anything."   
Sirius looked really hurt. "Why not?"   
Lily simply stared at him. "Why do you think?"   
Dumbfounded, he gesticulated so wildly he almost knocked his plate and glass off of the table. "What do I think? What do I think? Lily, I've been there for you practically for the last two years. I've never spread anything around the school that you told me. Ever. And I–"   
Lily placed a small hand over his mouth, and he fell silent. "But you have a very talkative best friend that insists that other's secrets simply slip out. And I don't want him knowing anything, for if I do, then–"   
"Hola, everybody–what's for breakfast?"   
Lily drew back and started talking to Eva, fixedly ignoring the person who had just plopped down in the seat of the other side of her.  
James turned to Sirius. "What'd I do?"   
Sirius busied himself with his bacon, accidentally puncturing the egg yolk on his plate. The rest of his food was quickly soaked, and he pushed his plate away in disgust.   
"I'm not sure what you did, but I have a feeling it has to do with your not being able to keep secrets. That's what she said, at least."   
James frowned. He lightly put a hand on Lily's shoulder and turned her around. His first sight of her since she got back startled him greatly.   
When she had received the news about her father, she kept losing weight and the circles around her eyes became more pronounced with each passing day. Now, however, she had gained back all she had lost, she wasn't the brittle and frail icicle she had been, the rings around her eyes were almost completely gone, and her eyes had a spark in them, a sort of light that he hadn't seen there for quite some time. The red curls that had unwoven themselves from the waist-length plait framed her glowing countenance, and, wondering what could have caused that change in her, he simply stared till she lifted his hand off of her shoulder with an expression of disgust.   
"Excuse you?"   
He pulled himself together. "Lil, what happened?"   
"How happened? You put your hand on my shoulder. What do you mean, what happened?"   
He waved that away. "No. Over Christmas. You look–" he searched for a word–"well, so much nicer than you did."   
"Am I supposed to take that as a compliment or an insult?"   
"Is anything wrong? Or was something wrong and it's right now?"   
With the icy dignity of a heartless queen sentencing a mass of people to death, she looked down on him.   
"And what makes you think I'd honor you with my confidence?"   
He started to speak, then seemed to notice the full Great Hall for the first time. "Oh. Tell me later?"   
Her glare became piercing. "And what makes you think I'd tell you anything?"   
When he didn't answer, she stood up, pulling Eva with her. "Eve, let's go. There's no point staying here and talking to simpletons. I've got Study of Ancient Runes next and you're going to help me find my alphabet of the dwarf-runes. I left it somewhere in my trunk, and now…" They left the Great Hall, chattering like a pack of mice, and Sirius had to hit James hard on the back before he turned around and paid attention to the pretty blonde girl that had just slipped into a seat next to him. Now, however, she was a bit pink with rage.  
Lily, persuaded by Eva, told Sirius everything in Study of Ancient Runes. It was a relief to tell him; he listened and didn't interrupt at all; simply looked at her, absorbing everything with an air of–of–well, of something Lily couldn't quite put her finger on, but it comforted her. She didn't need to tell him not to tell James–she knew he wouldn't. That was one of the things about Sirius–you could tell him anything and trust him with it.   
By the time lunch rolled around, Lily was getting rather sick of teachers patting her on the back and nodding to her in the hallways, so she begged Eva to bring a bit of lunch up to the common room. Eva appeared, empty-handed, but with a following of a dark-haired dog-like person carrying something looking disturbingly like a picnic basket with him. "House-elves," was the only explanation he gave, and, almost on cue, Minky came toddling in with two jugs of pumpkin juice in her hands, set them down, bowed very low, and retreated, almost knocking her head against her knees.   
The food stayed hot all through the lunch hour, and Lily told both her friends exactly what happened, this time including the details. There was one detail she kept to herself, however–her conversation with Severus. She had an eerie feeling that, however good Sirius might be at keeping secrets, he was terrible at it if it involved a possible blackmail situation and Severus Snape in the same sentence.   
But, that evening, when Lily and Eva were sitting in the windowseat, the darkest corner of the common room, she told Eva about Christmas Eve. Eva was both impressed and disgusted, but she kept that last feeling to herself. No matter how much she disliked Snape, he was Lily's friend, and therefore she had no right to say anything mean about him.   
"He asked you out?"

Lily nodded. "I told you, I said no."   
"But why? You'd have James begging for forgiveness!"   
Lily frowned. "I don't follow your thought processes."   
Sighing, Eva gripped Lily by the shoulders. "I don't care how many bottles of butterbeer he shares with his Cissa git, he still likes you. And if you did that, he'd either be begging you for forgiveness or–"   
Smoothly, Lily cut in. "Or he'd never speak to me again."   
"Oh." Eva sat back. "I didn't think of it that way. By the way–" she straightened up–"can I see the note?"   
Lily had expected this, and she pulled it out of her jeans pocket. "Read and keep to self."   
Eva rolled her eyes. "All right, all right. What on earth–" she was staring at the bot of parchment–"If you aren't too busy this year, do you mind if we officially–" She was snorting with laughter. "That is the weirdest way I've ever heard of of asking anyone out."   
Lily ripped the note out of her hands cleanly, tucking it back into her pocked. "I figured you'd say that. It could be worse, though."   
"But not by much."  
Lily and Eva both jumped, then glared. Looking over Lily's shoulder was a familiar tousle-headed, raven-haired someone that Lily wasn't too friendly with at the moment.   
"Excuse you?"   
"Bathroom's down that hall. What's this about Snape?" His eyes twinkled mischievously.   
Eva was holding onto the back of Lily's robes to keep her from attacking James. "Will you leave? This was none of your business!"   
"Exactly. Was. It is now. So–what's this about Snape?"   
Lily wrenched herself free from Eva's grasp. "Go away. I haven't told you this for a reason."   
"And that reason would be?"   
"Look at the way you're acting now! Not to mention that you spilled what I told you to Sirius!"   
He shrugged. "You would have told him anyway."   
"THAT DOESN'T MATTER! I TRUSTED YOU!"   
"All right, all right! Calm down!" He saw with relief that Lily obeyed him and sank back down onto the window seat. "Lil, I promise, I didn't tell him anything except what you heard me say. Now what's going on? You can trust me."   
Eva sat in her corner, smirking as she saw the angry face of Serena peeping our from behind an armchair, barely visible between the two in front of her, inches apart. The only drawback to that, Eva noted, was that Lily was glaring daggers at James.   
"Can I?"   
"Yes. Truly. I promise you, I won't tell anyone."   
"Why do you want to know?"   
He shrugged. "Well, it's pretty important to you. And I'd like to know what it is, so if anything else like it happens, I can be there for you?" His voice raised in a question at the end.   
Lily's angry glare faded, and she almost gave in. But then she caught sight of his eyes. They were just as concerned and understanding and pleading as they had been the night she had told him about her father, and she drew back, out of his reach.   
"You mean, so you can spread it all around the school. No thanks." With that final statement, she whirled around, headed for her dormitory, and vanished from sight, leaving James to a disappointed but amused Eva and an enraged, possessive girlfriend.  
Eva drew back even more into the curtains, effectively hiding herself but able to see and hear all. It was lucky that she knew how to contain her laughter, otherwise she would have interrupted the extremely interesting discussion that went on only three feet in front of her. Serena was foaming at the mouth.   
"Excuse you? What were you doing there?"   
James raised his eyebrows. "Talking."   
"Yes, talking! Talking to the one girl who's made my life here miserable! Two inches away from her face! That kind of talking!"   
"She's just had her father die! What do think I was doing? You've never had anyone close to you die–she's lost both her parents in six months!"   
Serena shook her head. "No, she didn't."   
He was dumbfounded. "What do you mean, no she didn't?"   
"She didn't tell you? That note was a fake. Her dad's still there to abuse her if he wants to."   
"A fake? How do you know?"   
"I know."   
"And where'd you get the idea that her dad abuses her? You've got no right to think that!"   
"Well, excuse me! I'm simply repeating what you said! You mean it's against the law now to agree with you?"   
"And when did you hear me say that?"   
"On the lawn. It was a Sunday."   
"So you were eavesdropping, too?"   
Serena folded her arms. "Well, I have the funny feeling that I have a right to know what my boyfriend's doing outside on the lawn with my greatest enemy, who just happens to be a girl."   
"So you have a right to know everything that goes on in my life?"   
"Well–yeah!"   
"Well–no!"   
"I'm your girlfriend, James Potter, and I have more of a right to you than anyone else here. Remember that."   
"No."   
"What do you mean, no?" She wasn't remotely pretty anymore. Practically spitting with rage, her features were convulsed and the usual innocent sweetheart look was wiped off.   
"I meant what I said! No! To the first bit of that last sentence, that is."   
"That I have more of a right to you than anyone else?"   
"No, that you're my girlfriend."   
Her jaw dropped. "WHAT?"   
"Jesus!" He covered his ears. "Don't scream like that!"


	32. Chapter XXXII

"I'll scream if I damn well please! WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!"   
James lost control, effectively drawing the attention of the entire common room to the arguing couple silhouetted by the light of the moon outside the window.   
"I TOLD YOU WHAT I JUST SAID! I'M SICK AND TIRED OF YOUR POSSESSIVENESS! I'M MY OWN PERSON, FOR GOD'S SAKE!"  
Upstairs, Lily heard screaming and shrieking noises coming from downstairs. Swiftly throwing her navy bathrobe on over her black nightgown and quickly plaiting her hair to that morning's style, she slipped downstairs, hiding in the shadow of the stairwell, with a clear view of the verbal fight.   
"So what does this mean?" Serena squared her shoulders defensively.   
"You, of all people, should know! Of all the uninteresting idiots in this whole darn school that don't have an idea of their own, you should know!"   
"Excuse me? I am uninteresting? You weren't singing that tune a year ago!"   
"Well, yeah! I never did. You were the one picking on me for not being able to sing! Besides, a year ago I was an idiot."   
"So what you're telling me is that I'm an uninteresting idiot without any original ideas, an eavesdropper–what else, James Potter? What else?"   
Remus was sitting in an armchair, leaning over to Sirius. "Five Galleons on James."   
Sirius shook his head. "I don't know about that. She's got a lot of rage. And spit."   
James stepped back. "What else? Well–let's see–you're dumped, maybe?"   
Sirius slapped Remus on the back. "I'll take that bet!"   
Mouthing wordlessly and resembling a dead codfish with a moving mouth, Serena stared after James as he left the common room, slamming the portrait closed and earning an enraged shout from the Fat Lady. She only left the common room when she was unfrozen by applause and whistles from the common room. Then she brushed herself off with as much dignity as she could muster, turned on her heel, and left for the girls' dormitory. On her way up, however, she caught sight of a redhead clad in shadows, standing on the stairwell.  
Serena stopped, scowled, smirked, and glared all at the same time. She thought she was frightening Lily. Lily was thinking to herself how stupid Serena looked.   
"So, happy now?"   
"Why should I be?"   
"I've been totally humiliated in front of Gryffindor Tower, dumped by my boyfriend, and insulted rudely. And it's all your fault."   
"Wow." Lily looked approving. "I should get a medal for that!"   
Stamping her foot on the stairwell, Serena's contorted features returned. "If you know what's good for you, you're going to find a way to get us back together."   
Lily shrugged. "I'm not the best person to use that line on. I ate rat poison once when I was eight to see what would happen. And when I was ten, I stuck my hand into a pot of boiling water to see how hot it was. Same goes for the iron."   
Mad as a smushed hornet, Serena practically started spitting again. Lily thought to herself that tonight she'd have to take her shower at night instead of in the mornings.   
"You little impudent rat! You've completely ruined every single chance I had with him!"   
Lily resumed a thoughtful look. "No, I'd say you did that. You didn't have to be so possessive."   
"So you eavesdropped on us?"   
"I didn't need to. I'll bet they heard you in the Alendoren Cove."   
"The who?"   
"You're not very good at geography, are you, dear?"   
"You were eavesdropping?"   
"So were you."   
Serena could find nothing to say to that. She simply stared after Lily as the slight figure made her way down to the common room where Eva was waiting for her. A bit to late, Serena found her voice.   
"I'll make sure you don't forget this, Evans!"  
Lily sighed. Calling over her shoulder, she sent her remark back. "And Hogwarts will make sure you don't forget your humiliation, Sikora."   
Without bothering to watch Serena vanish up the stairwell, she grabbed Eva's robes and pushed her into a chair. "Tell me what happened."   
The next morning, when Lily walked into the Great Hall Sirius and Remus were slapping James on the back, clapping loudly as he tried to eat. He gave up just as Lily slid into her seat, choking on a mouthful of milk.   
"How are you?"   
James spit the mess out into a napkin. "Sick."   
"Oh. I mean besides the milk."   
As he was coughing up the rest of the milk that had found its way into his lungs, he didn't answer right away, but when he did, his answer was to be expected.   
"Absolutely wonderful. Do you know, I haven't been able to play one really good prank since Serena happened? Oh, think of the possibilities!" His voice faded, and he drifted off into a sort of dreamland, where Sirius and Remus obviously didn't exist, for he took another swig from his mug. Immediately, hands were clapping him on his back, and he woke up with a loud snort of milk coming out of his nose and a howl of pain. Everyone around him almost killed themselves laughing. Serena wasn't too happy. She had been walking by, and some of the milk had landed on her robes. They laughed even harder at her stamped foot and storm out of the Great Hall, and when they subsided, Lily had only time for a quick bowl of oatmeal before they had to dash off to Transfiguration.  
Lily had forgotten that she shared this subject with James, and she didn't know quite what she felt about that when she remembered. He waved to her to sit down in the desk next to him, and, after a bit of uncertainty, she gave up and slid into the seat.   
"So, forgiven me now?"   
"No."   
"But you're sitting here!"   
"There is no other seat left, genius!"

James looked around. "Oh, right. Well–what'd you think of last night?"   
Lily pulled out her quill and bottle of ink. "I think that you're going to regret it."   
He looked dumbfounded. "Why? You're taking her side?"   
"NO." Lily shook her head determinedly. "I just think that you're more vulnerable to her wrath than I am."   
"So, you're worried now?" He nudged her in the side, but pulled his arm away quickly as she pointed the inky quill at him.   
"I am not worried."   
"So, why'd you decide to warn me?"   
"Blood and guts spread all over the common room are not nice to sit down on."   
"Oh." He stretched, yawning loudly. "Shame."   
"Why?"   
"I thought for a minute there you had actually turned human."   
"Me and human in the same sentence? Excuse me; is this St. Mungo's? Someone's using me and human in the same lifetime…uh-huh…temperature? Five hundred and ninety…"   
James grabbed the imaginary phone out of her hand. "Will you grow up?"   
"You need to shrink. You're sitting on Bob."   
It was just as well that Professor McGonagall was out of the room, for Lily burst into laughter at seeing his perplexed expression.   
"Bob?"   
"Yes, Bob! Can't you see him!"   
"Who is Bob?"   
Lily put her hands on her hips in feigned indignation. "Bob is my invisible friend! Stand up! He doesn't like having you on his lap!"   
James rolled his eyes. "For a moment there I thought you were serious."   
Lily gasped affectedly. "Don't you dare insult Bob!"   
Their conversation was terminated by the entrance of Professor McGonagall, but they continued it in Anatomy while they were working with giant tarantulas. Lily, after insisting that Bob be let to do his share of the fun, entwined James in a long conversation about how he couldn't prove that Bob didn't exist. James left that room at lunchtime with his head grasped in his hands, whining for headache medicine.   
In Astronomy, however, Lily had snapped back to her previous coldness, scowling at the person working at her star chart. Wisely, for once, he decided not to interrupt her.  
He wasn't in the common room that night; the Quidditch team was practicing. They tromped in at about eleven, freezing and bruised, since the snow had iced over. Miranda was the first to fling herself onto an armchair, and Lily quickly snapped her book shut as tiny ice particles came flying her way.   
"I take it it's cold outside?"   
Nigel sighed, stretching out in front of the fire. "I would answer that, but I have a funny feeling that the ice hanging off of my robes says it for me."   
Rebecca Oxley, the new Chaser, shoved him out of the way, her chestnut hair almost frozen stiff with the cold. "Move. Now."   
Lily shook her head and returned to _The Hunchback of Notre Dame, but she was startled rudely when water droplet dripped onto the page.   
"Potter, can't you go thaw somewhere else?"   
He shook his head. "I wanted you to see this."   
"See what?" Her voice was almost as icy as the wind beating the windows.   
He knelt down next to her. "Look at my hair."   
She obeyed, and next instant burst out laughing. "Why, of all things, do you have your hair frozen to your head?"   
Miranda waved that away. "That's nothing. He had icicles reaching down to his armpits before, but he broke them off."   
"Really? May I ask why?"   
"You just did."   
"James, shut up." John had butted in. "He was being an idiot, so we emptied some lake water over his head. He had nice little sheets of ice lining his eyelashes!"   
James glared. "You could have left that part out."   
John smirked. "Why–you embarrassed to have your faults revealed in front of a lady?"   
Miranda, Anya, and Jacqueline coughed loudly.   
"They don't count. No, really–you're blushing!"   
"That would be blood rushing to the head."   
"Yeah, that's what happens when you blush!"   
"Or when you're angry."   
Lily stood up, interrupting the conversation. "Goodnight, my statues of ice. I betaketh me to my quarters now."   
James leaned around the back of Lily's armchair. He was now occupying it. "James thanks Lily very much for the empty seat Lily just gave James! James is eternally grateful for a place to sit; thank you, Miss Lily!" He interrupted his house-elf talk as a piece of ice came hurtling down the girls' dormitory stairs at him.   
"As James was saying, James is very grateful to the–" He had to duck as she aimed another bit at him.  
The next few weeks were passing relatively eventlessly; they were taken up with excitement over the next Quidditch game, Gryffindor against Slytherin, and this game would decide who won the House Cup. It was a bit early for the last Quidditch match, but the fifth years were taking their O.W.L.s (Ordinary Wizarding Levels) earlier than usual, so the match was scheduled for the second Saturday in March. Lily had started helping both teams out again; they were mostly too frozen to care that she was helping their enemies. She hadn't learned from last time, seemingly, and she was still doing her on homework between classes and during meals. But she didn't have as much of a workload as she did; several of the teachers were sick and hadn't assigned much, and Sirius was helping her with the teams' work. By the time the match rolled around, the teachers had assigned them homework due to them on Saturday instead, and Lily was swearing to herself never to do anything as insane as this again, and she didn't know why she didn't stop._

It was pandemonium in the common room the night before the match when Nigel dropped the bomb on them.   
He entered, ruffling his (formerly blond, now streaked with mud) hair, and slamming the portrait closed behind him. Everyone looked up.   
"Nig, whassa matter?"'   
"Match isn't called off, is it?"   
He shook his head. "Bad news, all."   
The team jumped up. "How bad news?" "Are we playing someone else?" "Is it hailing tomorrow or something?"   
He shook his head again. "We've been practicing all those moves–and now the Slytherins've practically changed their whole team! Most of them left last year, and we're stuck with new people, and we've got no idea how they play."   
The team groaned audibly as the rest of the Gryffindors slumped. Nigel picked up his broomstick and waved them all outside.  
"Come on! We've got to!"   
The team groaned even louder as they caught sight of the fingernail-clipping sized hailstones beating the window.   
"Nigel!"   
"Look, do we want to lose? Come on, forget about homework!" He walked over to Lily and Sirius, who were working together on Rebecca's star chart for Divination. "Do you two think you can do this? I swear, this'll be the last time."   
Sirius ignored Lily's 'ugh' and immediately nodded. "Of course. We'll have this done by–what time do you intend to get back?"   
Nigel shook his head. "It's eleven now, so four would be a good estimate." The team slammed into the floor, whining loudly.   
Sirius nodded. "We'll have it done. Have fun, all." He bent over the measurement of the corners of the Great Dipper as the team got up and filed outside.   
It was five-thirty in the morning when they came back, weather-beaten, exhausted, and dead tired. They found Sirius asleep and Lily poring over a History of Magic book when they came in, and, after mumbling an unheard 'thank you', they all trooped back to bed. The only good thing about that interruption was that it awakened Sirius, and he immediately got back to Rebecca's Transfiguration summary.   
They had thought the homework and staying up all night was hard; it was nothing compared to the job they had getting the team members out of bed at ten, though Minky's spraybottle full of ice water helped a lot.   
Wiping sleep out of their eyes and accepting gratefully the large mugs of coffee and chocolate from Minky and her sister, Twinky, the team, Sirius, and Lily walked out onto the field. It was only when Lily took her place in the stands that she noticed that her shirt was on inside out. But as the teams took off, she could forget about it, as no one paid any attention to anyone else in the stands. The biased Slytherin fifth year was commentating again.   
"Captains Patil and Damant shake hands, they're off, aaand–Quaffle goes to Frank Crichlow–we've got a nice new Slytherin team here–Crichlow and Clarik're the only ones we have left from last year, but there Crichlow goes–Quaffle to Malcolm Chissick–Crichlow–Buckley–Elmer, for Pete's sake, don't drop the thing!–Quaffle in the hands of Gryffindor's Potter, Potter flying up the field–Quaffle to Miranda Shaw–also one of those stinking lions–well, they do, Professor!"   
Hail was falling lightly now, not hard enough to do much damage, but hard enough. The spectators were pulling out large umbrellas they'd had the foresight to bring along this time, but they made it a bit hard to see the players.   
"Slytherin's also got a nice new Beater–well, two, actually–we've got team captain Alistair Damant and Mycroft Gedgrave. Gedgrave launches a beautiful Bludger at Potter–missed his nose, but he'll do better next time. Potter's got a nice red ear now, no blood–shame–but he aimes–and–Cathryn, come on! Never mind–Potter scores, and Clarik is going to do better next time. That's what comes of having girls on a team–see what the effect on the Gryffindor team was!"  
The Gryffindor team's girls were shooting daggers at him, and if looks could kill, Murphy, the commentator, would be falling off of the Cliffs of Insanity, belly slashed open, head hanging off like Nick's, and guts tied to a tree, with the eels and sharks waiting below for him. He was hissed at violently, and Rebecca was so mad that she missed the goal by a good foot and a half.   
"What'd I say! I told you so! And hail's falling in thumbnail-sized clumps now and Gryffindor's getting nervous! What's wrong, can't take falling bits of ice? Harmless little jest, Professor, jesting never hurt anyone–and we've got Chissick heading up the fields–loops Patil–aaand–HE SCORES! THIRTY TO TEN FOR SLYTHERIN!"   
The boos coming from the Gryffindor end were enough to shake the stadium. Needless to say, they encouraged the Slytherins even more, and after showers of hail were falling in clumps and the game wasn't delayed any, James was still shooting desperately up the field, trying hard not to be hit by Bludgers, passing brooms, Beater clubs, random elbows, and fists. He pulled his arm back to throw–and just them he saw the new Slytherin Seeker, Warren Mallinson, streaking up the field, heading for something. Madly, ignoring the Bludgers that had just rearranged his insides, he yelled out to Anya, who hadn't noticed anything.   
"ANYA! BEHIND YOU!"   
She swerved and caught sight of the green bullet whizzing past her. Urging her broom on to faster speeds, she was slowly catching up. Behind her, John had pulled James onto his broom–James had been hanging off dangerously–and was trying to signal Nigel for a time-out. Nigel didn't see him–he was too caught up in the Seeker race, as was the rest of the school.Anya, three feet behind Mallinson, was trying desperately to catch up, but she was almost thrown off of her broom forwards when he stopped straight in front of her and grabbed something in the air. 

The Slytherin team and side exploded with cheers and screams, crowding onto the field as Cathryn Clarik was holding the Cup aloft, while the Gryffindors were cheering half-heartedly and accompanying Anya and James to the hospital wing.

Only the first thirty Gryffindors were allowed in, and when they were, Anya was sitting up, being clapped on the back ("Good job; you did great!") and trying to drink some strong black tea. James, on the other hand, was lying down, his chest covered in bandages, and his eyes half-closed. They were more solemn than they had been in ages, and the whole frost-bitten Gryffindor team was pretty downcast.

Miranda was the first to speak. "Well, it's only one year! We've been getting it for almost a decade running; we had to lose sometime!"   
Nigel half-nodded. "We would have won, too, if we hadn't been informed at the last minute that they had switched teams and techniques."   
"Yeah. But we tried our best! And under those conditions, too–when was the last time we had to play in hail?"   
Vanessa sniffed. "Eighteen seventy-three."   
They all stared at her. "Well, that explains it!"   
They spent a relatively mediocre afternoon in the hospital wing till Madam Pomfrey shooed them out. Anya would return to Gryffindor Tower right before dinner, she said, but James would be staying a bit. Reluctantly, the visitors left the wing, returning to the common room, where they half-gratefully grabbed their finished homework from the table where Lily had been working and handed it to Rebecca, who was going round, delivering their things to their respective teachers. As soon as everyone finished a shower and got into some dry clothes, they met down in the common room, most of them wondering about Anya and James.   
"I mean, Anya's coming back this evening, but James got hit in both sides with those Bludgers."   
"D'you think he broke some ribs?"   
"Doubt it. Nothing worse's ever happened here than broken jaws. He'll be all right."   
Everyone agreed, everyone except Lily. She knew how aggressive Damand and Gedgrave were, since she had seen them at practice, and she highly doubted that he'd come out of that with only a sore side.  
She was right. The day he returned to the Tower, five days later, he was limping a bit. Lily knew Madam Pomfrey was good, and if she couldn't fix an injury, it would have to be severe indeed. Still, she wasn't prepared for the sight she got when Sirius insisted to see his injury. Lily and many others could have killed Sirius for that. 

James' whole stomach area was a nasty purplish-yellow, and it looked like he had been serving as a door when a battering ram hit it. It was terrible to look at, and after the first glance, many of the girls had left the common room for their dormitories. Lily stayed, mainly because of her odd notion that the bruise on his stomach wouldn't go crazy and start killing people, as several girls seemed to think. Sighing loudly, James let himself fall into an armchair, wincing a bit.   
"Sirius, thanks a lot. They're not going to speak to me again!"   
"And the drawback to that would be...?"   
"Ugh." James shrugged. "I don't really blame them for leaving; it's not   
pretty, is it?" That last was directed at Lily, who was buried in   
Robinson Crusoe.   
Lily looked up. "What isn't?"   
"You saw."   
"Oh, that." Lily waved that away. "Do you really want to know what it   
looks like?"   
"Not especially, but your comparisons are usually interesting to listen to,   
so shoot."   
Lily rolled her eyes. "All right then." She shut her book. "If I didn't know better, I'd say that Sherlock Holmes had forgotten that people that breathe aren't dead and tried to do one of his experiments on you. He liked   
to beat corpses with clubs in order to see how far bruises can be produced   
after death," she added. James raised his eyebrows. "Not bad. I could tell people that!"   
"James, dear, Sherlock, one: is fictional, two: would be dead if he weren't   
fictional. Therefore, three: you cannot go around telling people that."   
"I can try and see what happens?"   
"That would be my phrase. Stop that." She rearranged herself in the   
armchair. "So, terribly disappointed that Slytherin got the House Cup?"   
James' lighthearted half-grin vanished. "You just had to remind me of that,   
didn't you?"   
"Sorry. But how much do you really mind?"   
James scowled at her. "You know better than to ask me that. You know how   
much I like Quidditch."   
Lily nodded. "I do, and I wish I didn't. It's practically all you ever   
talk about."  
His frown deepened, then cleared. "Never mind."   
"Never mind what?"   
"I forgot that you don't like Quidditch all that much."   
"How can you forget?"   
He amended. "There is that." Suddenly, a mischievous grin spread across his face. "I'd forgotten something. You were telling Eva something about Snape the day we returned and then you wouldn't tell me. What is it?"   
Lily's impassive, cold face returned. "Excuse you?"  
"No. Now, tell me!" He had assumed an attitude that, if you didn't keep   
your wits together, would make you think he was in control. Lily kept her wits together. "And why, pray tell, should I tell you that?"   
He grinned. "Easy." Then the grin faded. "Never mind. I would have said that since you don't like him, then you should rejoice to-but never mind.You're out of your head, you know, associating with him.   
"I'll associate with whoever I please, Potter." The common room, mostly empty now, was ideal for an argument. "Yeah, but when that someone is Snape, then the situation's totally different."   
"How different?"   
He shrugged. "Isn't it obvious? Nasty, slimy, greasy-haired git who's always seeking for a chance to put Gryffindor down..."   
Lily set her mouth tightly. "Well, you'd be surprised at what they say   
about you."His eyebrows went up again. "What do they say?"   
Lily closed her book. "I'm going to bed. Goodnight!"  
James saw her vanish up the girls' dormitory stairs, the black nightgown trailing behind her and, finally, even her shadow cast by the torchlight faded, and he remembered what he'd had in mind to ask her. "Man, Sirius, I'm an idiot!"   
"Yeah, you are." Sirius agreed heartily. "What about this time?"   
James pounded a fist into the armchair. "I meant to ask her   
something-something important."   
"Ohhh." Sirius winked. "I think I can put a name to that!"   
Raising his fist, James looked from it to Sirius.   
"I think you and my knuckles would go very well together. Care to find   
out?"   
"Nah. That would involve my walking over to where you are." He shuddered.   
"Work."   
James rolled his eyes, and, standing up, he began to move towards the dormitory stairs. "Goodnight."   
Sirius looked at his watch, shook it, looked at the common room clock, and   
finally at James. "What's wrong with you? It's only ten-thirty!"   
James stopped shortly. "Yeah, and I've got marks from two vicious Bludgers on my stomach. You really want me to throw up all over you, just say so."   
Sirius grinned. "Nah. Never mind! See ya whenever!" With a large, pasted grin on his face, he waved affectedly after James, who sighed loudly and continued on his way up the stairs.  
His watch struck twelve before all the late sounds in the common room and dormitories had ceased. Quietly, he pulled the Invisibility Cloak out of his trunk and flung it over his dark blue bathrobe. Taking a key from Remus' trunk, he slipped outside the dormitory to the house-elf door. He quickly dodged the small figure traipsing around with a glass of water, though the large tennis-ball eyes made him nervous-he'd never felt that house-elves couldn't see through Invisiblity Cloaks. But he got by the small elf and re-emerged in the hallway of the girls' dormitory. He knew which one was Lily's; after all, he'd been in there to see Serena   
more often than he dared to count. Making sure not to dislodge anything, he slipped inside the dormitory and made his way over to her bed.   
Something came up that he hadn't expected-he hadn't expected her to be awake. But she was-she had pulled out an old book that he recognized as being The Princess Bride-but she wasn't reading it. Her hands were running over some writing on the cover, and, with a shock, James noticed that she was crying-long pathways of tears were already evident on her face. Leaning over her so as to see the writing, he read only a small sentence.   
  
_Lily, dear, I loved this book when I first read it, and now it's your   
turn with Inigo and Westley and Buttercup, with true love and fencing and   
fighting and giants and miracles. Love, Mother.   
  
James had to blink at that, for an image of losing his own mother flashed across his mind. Quietly setting his hand on her shoulder, he waited for her startled tenseness to subside.   
He pulled his cloak off of his head and shoulders, kneeling by the side of the bed so as not to be noticed by any other possibly awake inhabitants of the dormitory.   
"Lily, I need to speak to you."   
Hurriedly running her hands over her cheeks, drying them, she sat up straight defensively.   
"What gives you the right to come in here?" Her angry whisper glared at   
him.   
He looked at her. "Lil, I need to talk to you."   
Moved a bit by the urgency in his eyes, Lily slipped out from under the covers, pulling on her own bathrobe and Lily followed him out of the dormitory as he led her towards the house-elf door, out through that one slimy corridor, to the unused wing, and finally to the room she had blurted everything out to him in. He waved her into a seat, pulled out a couple of Chocolate Frogs from a drawer, and threw a few over to her. Then, seating himself, he found he couldn't say what he meant to, not yet, at least. She still had some mockery left in her, and he couldn't bring up anything serious if she was in that kind of mood. Instead, he started the conversation off differently. "So, what's this about Snape?" Lily raised her eyebrows. He'd dragged her out of bed just so he could have an embarrassing fact he could blackmail his enemies with?   
"Is this all you brought me down here for?"   
"Nah." He shrugged. "But it's a good conversation starter. How about it?"   
Lily shook her head. "He trusted me not to tell anyone, and I'm not going to let him down."   
James smiled wickedly. "Oh, so it's that kind of secret?"   
"Yes," Lily replied shortly. "Are you letting me go now?"   
"No." Shaking his head firmly, James pressed her back into her seat. "Did he actually tell you not to tell anyone?"   
Lily hesitated a bit, but then shook her head. "No; he only asked me to forget that it ever happened."   
"Ohhhh. You know, you give too much away. First it's a something you can't tell anyone, second, it's a 'forget this ever happened' secret–what, did he ask you to marry him?"   
Lily's face flushed angrily at his tart words, so close to the point, but before she could find a fitting retort, he had made a meaning out of her silence.   
"So he did? Is that it?" This had gone a bit farther than James had intended, and he was sort of dreading the answer she would give.   
Lily scowled. "You idiot. You knuckle-brained, pig-headed idiot. He's only fourteen. Who on earth thinks of marriage at that age?"   
James shrugged. "Serena."   
Waving that aside with an 'of course, how could I forget that?' air, Lily re-settled herself in her chair. "Well, yeah, that's pretty much all she's good for."   
"Well, what did he say? You can rest assured that if you don't tell me, it'll be all over the school by lunchtime tomorrow."   
Lily looked skeptical. "What will?"   
"The fact that he asked you to marry him."_


	33. Chapter XXXIII

"But it's pretty close, isn't it?" He noticed her red cheeks and triumphantly grinned. "Told you so!"   
Lily let her face drop into her hands. Oh, great. Why on earth did this tormenting devil ever have to be born? Why did he have to do this? Idiot, she reproached herself. Talkative, babbling, readable idiot. Choosing her words carefully, she looked back at James her eyes hard.  
"James, whatever he told me, it was to be kept to myself. He trusted me, and I'm not about to spoil that. Can't you understand? If you can't, please try to."   
Her seriousness made him reconsider the jibes he was ready to throw at her, and he averted to the topic he had intended to choose. Instead, he pulled a note out of his pocket.   
"I found this when I was cleaning out the wastebaskets in the teachers' offices as a detention. This was in Madam Pomfrey's."   
Lily took it from him, rather confused. But then her face grew dark with anger as she pulled another piece of parchment out of her bathrobe pocket and compared the torn edge on each. They fitted together perfectly.   
Her face hard and impassive, Lily looked up at James. "And you're positive this isn't just another prank?"   
"More than positive."   
Lily glanced over it again. It had a few short lines on it, in bubbly, large handwriting.   
  
_That scared you, didn't it? You really should keep your letters better hidden, and your sister needs to learn to write better; her handwriting's too easy to imitate.   
  
Underneath that were two S's, intertwined with each other in Old English script. There were only two people she could think of, offhand, who had those initials. And Severus certainly didn't write his notes with large, poufy hearts above the i's. Lily set her teeth.   
"This was on the bottom of the letter that told me my father was dead."   
James nodded. "I figured that."   
"And it's from Serena."   
His eyes didn't dilate at that. "I figured that, too." Looking up, he peered into her eyes. "He isn't, is he?"   
Slowly, Lily shook her head.   
"You didn't bother to tell me that he was alive?"   
"You didn't give me a reason to."   
"That's true. I'm sorry."   
She slowly nodded her head. "It's all right. I just didn't give you a chance to."   
"Yeah, but that was my fault."   
Lily smiled. "All right, if you really want the blame, take it!"   
He laughed. "We can share?"   
"I don't do sharing very well." She stood up and moved forward, putting a light hand on his shoulder, Not expecting this, James looked up.  
"Hum?"   
"Thanks for telling me. I know–well, at least, I think you still like her, in spite of what you say."   
James stared slowly at something within his mind, and Lily felt sure she could put a name to it. Or, rather, her. Then he shook his head violently.   
"No. Serena's done with. After what she did to you, I'm done with her."   
Lily smiled, a bit tired. "I'm still warning you, she doesn't give up that easily."   
"But she'll have to." Then his eyes regained their sparkle. "And what did you tell Severus?"   
Lily's eyes widened. "Not this again!"   
He pushed her into her former chair again. "No, really. You told Eva, why not me?" He hated to prolong this, but he had to know the answer she'd given Snape.   
Lily was getting slowly tired of this. Sighing, she gave up.   
"If you tell anyone, anyone about this, your life will not be worth living. And you know it won't."   
"I know. So, tell!"   
She sighed again, but searched her memory obediently. "You were right. Partly," she amended. "He did ask me to be his girlfriend."   
James was a bit anxious in case his nervousness was getting too obvious. "And what did you tell him?"   
With a firm tread, Lily stamped every bubble of hope in the room flat. The explosion was almost deafening. "I told him that I was too young and didn't like him that much. There, happy?"   
He didn't answer right away, so she repeated herself. "Happy?"   
He pulled his face into a frown. "Not especially. But I can live with that. Say–" he looked at her curiously–"how come you don't like him? You've been really good friends since the beginning of last year; what happened?"   
Lily squared her shoulders. "I don't especially like this conversation, but I didn't say I didn't like him. He's the best friend I could ever hope for, which is more than I could say for you, but I just don't like him outside of the friend barrier."   
"Oh." James nodded slowly. "Is he still your friend?"   
"I don't see that that's any of your business." She drew her ears back and raised an eyebrow defensively. "Now, if you do or if you don't mind, I'm going to bed." She untied the knot in her bathrobe's sash (it was getting a bit hot) and walked out of the room, closing the door quietly behind her. When James had jumped to his feet and left the room after her, she was gone.  
He let his head sink slowly. It was to be expected, wasn't it? He couldn't have had the slightest hope that she would consider any offers of that sort from anyone, not someone like her. All the other girls he'd known were usually desperate for–yes, well, someone like him–smart and a Quidditch player–Lily didn't need anyone like that. She couldn't care less how many goals you scored or how many teachers you could make a fool out of–she looked deeper than that, if she even bothered to look. And it seemed that, in his case, she hadn't bothered to look. She didn't put up with any of his teasing or taunting, and the only things that he did that had made an impression on her were–well, bad.  
Walking back to his dormitory a bit dejectedly, he heard a few soft crying sounds. He stopped, then, frowning a bit, he moved forward in the direction of Lily's dormitory.   
Lily, who had vanished into the closest doorway in the semi-secret hall, saw James leave the room, a bit depressed, not bothering to lock the door_

She had been counting on that, and, as soon as he vanished from sight and the sound of the closing door made a soft bang, she slipped back inside the room.   
The first time she had been in there, she had noticed a small bump underneath one of the blankets that lined the walls, and she also remembered that she had seen no sign of further excursions to the Whomping Willow. Running her hands quickly over the walls, she found the bump again and pulled the blanket aside.   
She saw only the stone wall, but that was to be expected. But it was stone wall with a handle on it. Lily pulled on it, but gave up after the first try, knowing that Sirius and James, if they wanted to keep something hidden, would use more than just a blanket and several secret corridors to hide it.   
Flicking out her wand, she eyed the stone wall apprehensively. Guessing quickly, she chose the password that had opened up the old hiding place for the Animagi books, for she had a pretty shrewd suspicion that this room wasn't only used as a hideout for cutting class.   
"Muidnessid!"   
Coming out of the house-elf door, walking inside the dormitory softly, James saw with a quick glance that Lily's four-poster was empty, and the crying came from a different bed. The occupant sat up immediately when she saw him in the doorway.   
"Serena? What–what's wrong?"   
She dried her eyes hurriedly. "Oh–everything. Everything's wrong–now. Oh, go away!" She buried her head in her pillow, sobbing loudly.   
If Lily had been there, she would have started laughing at that performance. She knew that Serena had seen her leave the room with James, and she knew that Serena was pretty good at producing crocodile tears. But Lily was not there, and James was.   
He sort of had the idea that the only decent thing to do would be to try to comfort her, so he moved towards her tentatively, putting a hand on her arm.   
"Are–are you all right?"  
She shook her head violently, her blond hair curling on the pillow. "No. I haven't been since the first day of school this term. Oh–you're making it worse, please go away!"   
He ignored that and pulled her against him, and, with a vicious, delighted smile he couldn't see, she buried her face in his shoulder, still sobbing brokenly.   
On Lily's part, she was also smiling viciously as the stone wall opened up to reveal the books she had seen that other time, and, when she pushed the far side of the stone cabinet, her smile widened as she saw the hallway in whose shadow she had hidden as she watched James and Sirius pull books out of the wall to take to the Shrieking Shack. Lily closed it quickly, and, pulling the books onto her lap, she arranged herself in front of the half-dead fire that was breathing its last in the small room.   
She knew and recognized four of the books, but one of them was new. It wasn't exactly a book, however; it was a binder with large sheaves of parchment stuffed inside. As Lily opened it up and leafed through the pages, she recognized Peter's handwriting, lots of Sirius', and quite a bit of James'. Mostly, she realized, the pieces of parchment that had Peter's handwriting on them were copies of selected pages from library books. She recognized a few passages on Animagi that she had looked up for homework last year, and she knew that they had had to return the book before Madam Pince got suspicious.   
Lily quickly flipped through the pages, looking for notes and other things, and she finally came upon something she felt she could use. It was in James' handwriting and was a side-script, scribbled in the margin of a page.   
  
Pince has Dangerous Transformations in her office. Bookshelf three, third from left it usually is. Check tomorrow.   
  
Underneath that, Lily recognized Sirus' script.   
  
_Oh, I'm doing this? OK, OK, fine, but I'll need your cloak.   
  
_This was obviously a note written in class or the library. The next bit James had written._   
  
All right, take it. But if you get it taken up, your life isn't going to be worth living.   
  
Oh, really? What are you planning on doing?   
  
I'll think of something. We've got to have it, otherwise we won't be able to become Animagi. And, after the work we put into it, that would really suck. _  
  
Lily smiled wickedly when she read that. Pulling the sheaf of parchment out of the binder, she folded it up and placed it in her coat pocket, then replaced everything else so that no one could tell there had been an intrusion. Quickly, she flitted up to bed, but stopped short when she saw two figures near Serena's bed, one kneeling beside it, one sitting in it. Lily drew back into the shadows.  
They spoke so low that Lily couldn't understand a word, and the intensified hearing she had received from her visits to the Alendoren Cove had been fading slowly. So, at about two in the morning, Lily noticed with relief that James was getting ready to leave; her legs were getting tired of supporting her for so long, and, besides, she hadn't slept all night. Pressing herself into the shadows behind the door, he passed her without dreaming that she was there. Of course, the dark bathrobe and nightgown helped, too.  
When Serena finally fell asleep, Lily judged it time to get into her own bed, and, at three, she dozed off herself.  
The next morning, a Friday, was the day before the Easter holidays started. They were getting afternoons off from classes, so as to have time to pack their things. Throwing her Charms homework along with her Herbology summary into her bag, Lily quickly dressed and went downstairs to breakfast. There she was greeted with something she had expected; though obviously she was the only one.

Lily slid into a seat next to Amanda and Eva, who were both scowling their muscles stiff. Eva was attacking her scrambled eggs with a ferocity that must have dented the golden plate and fork. Amanda, on her part, was mumbling something to Remus, who was glaring at a pair next to him that he had hoped was dissolved forever. Serena was pretty enough, but she had the worst temper and the meanest disposition when she wasn't getting what she wanted. And she had loosed her temper on him only moments before, when James wasn't looking or listening (for once).   
Though Lily hadn't understood a word of the conversation last night, she knew her supposition had been right when she caught sight of James and Serena, talking quietly but apparently oblivious of anyone else. Boys. Lily shook her head. You'd think they'd learn. Her thoughts were interrupted, however, by the arrival of the breakfast mail.   
Alisande, who had been gone for about a week now, dropped a letter right next to Lily's plate. She was getting good at not letting letters fall into milk jugs. Peter's owl still hadn't learned. Ripping the letter open, Lily recognized her sister's handwriting.  
  
_Lily,   
  
Yes, this letter is really from me. This is a warning. Dad has to go on a last-minute trip to __Washington__, __D.C.__, and he wants me to tell you not to come home over Easter. He would take you, but the hotels are swamped, and he's leaving me at __Vernon__'s. So there really would be not point in coming home.   
Have you found out who wrote that letter yet? Some of your old friends have been asking about you. I told them, as usual, that you were off at boarding school, but I looked really stupid when I couldn't tell them where it was.   
I'm sending you an Easter present from Dad. He said to share with your friends. But don't attack it till Easter, if it comes before then.   
Bye and see you over the summer,   
  
Petunia  
  
_Lily groaned. Another business trip. Why now? Why, why, why now? She'd have to put up with the reunited couple all through this class-free week. Mumbling under her breath, she got up and gathered her things together as the bell rang for first period.   
All six of them–Remus, Sirius, James, Peter, Lily, and Serena–had first period Charms together today, and Lily wasn't looking forward to this at all. No one really was–no girl, that is. It wasn't to be denied that Remus was the only boy who was dissatisfied–even Peter was oddly excited.   
Abigail and Lily applauded themselves silently as they left the classroom. They had made it through the whole period without throwing up, and that took some self-control. Herbology was next, and Lily had that period alone with James. She really wished he hadn't signed up for Anatomy; then she wouldn't have to spend four periods in a classroom with him and none of her other friends.  
They were working in Greenhouse Three today, but after finishing the Flutterby bushes they were assigned, they were allowed to return to the castle, as it was still rather cold outside. The only good thing about the weather was that it had stopped hailing, and, at returning to the castle, Lily headed straight for Professor Dumbledore's office, shuddered at the still disturbingly ugly goblin guarding the entrance (Fizzing Whizzbee–that was the password Professor McGonagall gave it last time Lily had been to visit the headmaster), and handed Dumbledore her sister's note.   
He nodded slowly after reading through it. "So you shall be staying here over the holidays?"   
Lily nodded. "Yes, sir."   
"All right." He stood up, folded the letter back up, and handed it to Lily. "I shall be sending a messenger to your father, however, making sure that this is not a hoax."  
She nodded again. "Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."   
"All right. We shall inform you of the results. You have not found the writer of the other letter yet, have you?"  
Lily stiffened. She didn't know what to say. Yes, on the one hand, she hated Serena terribly, but on the other hand, this would get her thrown out–and, yes, well–it would break at least one of her friends' hearts. Plus Serena was the daughter of the Minister of Magic, who probably wouldn't respond too favorably if his daughter would happen to be expelled. She made up her mind after an instant.   
"No, sir."   
Dumbledore glanced over her with that piercing glance that always made her fell as if he were peering into her mind, then nodded slowly.   
"All right. You may go to lunch now–" He stopped as the lunch bell rang.   
Lily smiled shortly. "Thank you, sir." She turned around and left the room, shutting the door softly.   
Down in the Great Hall, Eva was waiting for her.  
"James told me you had most of last period off. Where were you? I didn't have Care of Magical Creatures, because Kettleburn had a practical lesson in mind, so I looked for you, and couldn't find you."   
Lily waved that away as she heaped her plate with fried chicken and a baked potato. She filled her cup with steaming cocoa before she answered.   
"Dumbledore's office. I'm not going home over Easter."   
Eva was puzzled. "Why not?"  
"Dad's on a business trip to America. And he couldn't find a room for me and Petunia, so we're staying behind."   
Wrinkling her nose, Eva reached for the cocoa pitcher. "And what about me? I signed up to go home. Should I write Mother and tell her I'm not leaving after all?"   
"You can if you want to. But don't you want to go home?"   
Eva shook her head violently. "Basil's home again. He was working over in Switzerland, with a bank, but he's home now over the holidays. I don't like his friends."

Lily broke some garlic bread in half and handed a piece to her friend. "Why not? What're they like?"   
"Oh–" Eva shrugged and accepted the bread. "Mostly the kind like Peter." She dropped her voice. "I don't like people like that. They're too darned nervous and jumpy and stupid."   
Peter turned around. "I just heard my name?"   
"Yes." Lily nodded, ignoring Eva's vicious elbow, which was giving her several hard pokes in the side. "Eva's brother has several friends, and–" The elbow dug into her ribs even harder. "And one of them is named Peter. Stop poking me!" This last was directed at Eva.   
Peter, obviously appeased, turned to his pumpkin juice and left Eva feeling rather in between stupid and angry.   
By the time dessert came around, two people came in that Lily hadn't seen at lunch yet. She gave a loud snort as James tried to pull Serena into the seat next to her and succeeded, but kept her mouth shut, to Eva's surprise.   
It was a bit sickening to sit beside Serena, who was meticulously picking out the desserts including the least amount of calories and listening to orders from her to go down to the kitchen and go get a measuring cup, so she wouldn't put too much cream on the blackberries. Needless to say, Serena might just as well have given an azalea bush those orders, but it got annoying after a while. Still, Lily made it through the meal without giving any blackmail threats, though she sorely wanted to.  
Lily gratefully saw Serena leave the entrance hall Saturday morning, giving her boyfriend lots of hugs and tears, as she was leaving for the Easter holidays. She didn't know if she could put up with those empty, annoying death threats and false letters and the punches in the hallways any more than she had to, and she was wishing that someone would endow Serena with a more inventive mind, because she was getting extremely tired of the "I'm going to kill you, Evans," and then Lily got all excited, but the only thing Serena ended up doing was cursing her and tripping her in the hallway. It was getting very old.   
Eva had communicated with her mother, and she was staying. Vanessa, however, almost had to be dragged along to the train station; she was not in the least excited about leaving. Her holidays would be filled with bangings from one end of the corridor, where Basil's friends were staying, and intense boredom, since her mother was going to be doing several volunteer things, expecting Vanessa to participate. Vanessa was not on speaking terms with Eva when she said goodbye to Lily.   
Abigail was leaving, as were Miranda and Nigel, but Amanda, Elspeth, and Diana were staying, along with the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. And, standing together in front of the entrance hall, Lily, Eva, and Amanda waved at the deportees till the carriages were out of sight.   
Soon, however, it was time for them to go back inside; the strong wind mixed with bits of ice had started back up, and they were taking shelter in the common room. Contentedly, they watched the fire flicker, giving off a warm glow, and the ice hitting the windowpanes. It was Saturday; they had all of nine days to relax, complain about Professor McGonagall, and finish the large workload they had been given over the holidays. Professor McGonagall insisted that since their O.W.L.s came up next year, the fourth years ought to be prepared, but Lily was the only one who took her side, and that privately. Sirius, Remus, Peter, Elspeth, and Diana were grousing.   
Lily had found out in the meanwhile that Elspeth and Diana were actually pretty nice when Serena wasn't around.   
Diana was rather talkative (she liked to make her earrings click), had was extremely good at cards but terrible at Gobstones, lived for the raspberry-flavored Honeydukes dark chocolate, and had three cats, a colony of tropical fish, and a small garter snake. She was trying to make her parents let her get an asp, since she liked the idea that Cleopatra had committed suicide using one of those friendly creatures, but they had said NO, firmly.   
Elspeth was rather shy and quiet; her family bred horses, and she had one of her own; his name was Storm, and he was black all over, except on his forehead, where a tiny white lightning-bolt disrupted his dark coat. She liked everything that had to do with the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians, just like Lily, and they had fun disputing one of Aristotle's ideas with some of the boys, namely this: Aristotle thought the woman was an incomplete form of man.   
The girls were hotly denying this, while the boys were pointing out that Aristotle was a famous role model, and one shouldn't disbelieve him, also that his mother was a midwife, and he should know better than anyone. The girls retorted with 'well, he should have spent more time around his mother, then, because he obviously didn't know that females were more developed mentally than males, which was obviously the reason they were being so stupid right now.' The boys found nothing to say to that, and they shut up.   
Still, they weren't exactly straining themselves; sitting on the carpet playing Gobstones and Exploding Snap while trying to persuade someone out of their group to go down to the kitchens and get some cocoa. So, when James walked in, with a load of parchment, an ink bottle, and a quill in his hands, spread his things on a table, and started writing something, they all stared at him, aghast.   
Sirius was the first to speak. "Are you sick?"   
"Hum?" James looked up and smiled airily. "Nope. I'm writing to Cissa."   
John was staring at him as if he had just escaped from St. Mungo's. Walking over to him and putting a hand on his shoulder, he snatched up the roll of parchment James had been covering. John, with a disgusted and astonished look on his face, turned to the lazy friends sprawled in front of the fire.   
"This idiot covered ten inches of parchment with this mess! Already! And he just said goodbye to her an hour ago!"   
Remus rolled his eyes. "James, better be careful. You might end up—"he shuddered—"marrying her."   
James went scarlet and snatched his letter back. "Oh, shut up. I like her is all."  
Sirius nodded sarcastically. "Of course, you only like her. How on earth could we assume anything else? She acted as if you were her slave, she covered you with spit yelling at her that one night, you went right back out with her, you've been hanging on her every word since then, and the second she leaves, you start writing a length letter, that has, from what I can see through the parchment, at least seven 'I love you's' on there. Of course, you only like her."   
James went scarlet again and covered his letter up. "Sirius, shut up!"   
Sirius resignedly slid back down and closed his eyes. "As the groom wishes." He had to jump up hurriedly and duck behind several other armchairs, however, to escape the hexes issuing from James' wand. It was all quite amusing to the spectators, and especially when James accidentally hit Eva and Lily with one of his cat-tail jinxes, and they got fed up.

When Lily wiped her wand clean on her robes, blew a bit of dust off, and stuck it back into her pocket, James was sitting in an armchair, fastened to it with a large squelch of honey, with extra whiskers sprouting out of everywhere anyone would want to think of; his arms and legs were tied with velvet ribbon that had itching powder sprinkled on it, and he had several fins sticking out of the end of his spine and plastic combs with ribbons attached trying to tame the mess on top of his head that he claimed was hair.   
James wasn't extremely excited about that, and they heard him mumbling to himself that 'that was the last time he'd ever teach that Lily kid how to hex people'. There was no denying, too, that Lily had done most of the jinxing. But she had good reason to; she didn't only have a regular tail, she had seven, and they were all in the most unlikely places; on top of her head, her stomach, on her tongue, her eyelids (both of them), and serving as two extra fingers.   
They un-jinxed James about fifteen minutes later, when the laughing fits had worn off, and after he finished getting rid of all of the itching powder, he agreed that yes, it was very good stuff. He ended up being the one that asked Minky for the hot cocoa, and they were all delighted when Minky brought it up. Well—all except Lily—she knew that gleam in James' eyes. As did Sirius and Remus, but they didn't catch it. And she was quite thankful, a moment later, that she hadn't drunk any.  
In the first place, it was nasty; in the second, it contained the same very good brand of itching powder. James was pleased to note that that had more effect than several dozen Tinrash Pfefferolus hexes, but he got rather edgy when he met Lily's glare  
"Yes?" he asked innocently. Lily wasn't fooled. Neither was anyone else.   
"I'm sure we all enjoyed that."   
"Well, you didn't. You didn't even drink any."   
"Oh." Lily stopped to consider. "You're right. But I'm going to attack you on behalf of everyone else, all right?"   
"NO." James was firm.   
The others didn't bother. Sirius simply waved his hand in some odd direction. "Lily, don't bother. We'll get him. He has to sleep sometime." Lily laughed at James' surprised start. Then, as if something had just crossed her mind randomly, which it had, she stood up and went over to James, who cowered visibly.   
"I need to speak to you. ALONE." This last was directed at Peter, who was inching forward.   
James looked puzzled and apprehensive as he pulled out his wand. Impatiently, Lily took her own wand out and threw it on the common room carpet, closer it him than to her, and a good five yards away from either of them.  
"All right, fine; you're armed, I'm not. That okay?"   
James kept his wand out, ignoring the cat-calls from Sirius. "What about?"   
"I just said it was private. If I didn't, then I'm saying it now, and you should have understood. It has to do with something you told me in the other wing."   
James looked confused for a second, but only a second. "Oh, all right. Where?"   
"Where what?"   
"If you said you wanted to speak to me alone, which you did, this isn't the best place to do it." He was right, too. The whole common room was listening.   
"All right." She nodded and moved towards him, whispering. "Same place. I'm going to meet you there in five minutes. Now tell me something. Anything, I don't care what."  
He didn't catch on quickly, but he did whisper a few mumbles sounding suspiciously like 'blah, blah, blah, are you getting tired of blah and is this good enough?' That was what Lily had been waiting for, and she instantly backed away.   
"Excuse you? How dare you—never mind. I'm going. Goodbye." She turned on her heel and flounced off, heading for her dormitory. Once there, she took the key out of the lock, slammed the door as hard as she could, staying in the hallway, locked it, and put the key in her pocket. Slipping towards the house-elf door, she got to the room she had been in just two days ago. To her slight chagrin and annoyance, James was there before she was, sitting calmly in an armchair.  
"You wanted to talk to me?"  
"I did." Lily sat down in front of the fire, facing him. "It's about Severus."   
His eyebrows went up. "And what does that have to do with me?"   
Lily stood up. "It's about what I told you last time."   
"And?"   
"Have you spilled what I told you to anyone?"   
James frowned. "Why on earth would I do that?"   
Lily gave him a Look.   
"Never mind."   
"I thought so." She sat back down. "Well?"   
He shook his head. "I haven't. You trusted me, didn't you?"   
"I did."   
"Well, I figured there'd be no point messing it up—after all, you're pretty nice to have around."  
Her eyebrows were the ones that went up, skeptically. "How, nice to have around? When I'm helping you with your homework or when I'm asking your crush if she'd meet you somewhere?"   
He made several emphatic 'no's. "Lil, no! I—no, it's just that you're nice to be around when you're not jinxing people."   
She dropped back onto her heels. "That's always nice to hear. Besides—" she went a bit quieter than usual, and something about her changed, though James wasn't sure quite what. "Besides, I haven't thanked you for handing in your homework as mine that day last term, have I?"   
He went brick red. "How did you know—I mean,--oh, god. Yeah, I did do that, but how you found out is beyond me."   
"Sirius."

"Oh. Should have guessed."   
"Well—thanks for that."   
"No problem. You were working yourself to insanity, and then you didn't have your own work, so—" He shrugged. "Well,--is that all?"   
Lily nodded. "I wanted to make sure you didn't blurt out anything while you were mad at me. I guess now I know you wouldn't have, but—"   
"I know what you mean. I'd have done the same thing."   
"So…" Lily had waited for this chance. "Are you happy with Serena?"   
He smiled. "Yeah, I guess."   
Lily nodded slowly. "I think I can tell that you really like her—only—"   
"Only what?"   
"I'm debating on whether to tell you this or not."   
"Fire when ready."   
"All right. But at your own risk." She settled herself on the rug. "James, I really doubt whether she's the kind of person you want to stay with. Remember when you broke up with her?"   
"Yeah, so?" He was on the defensive now.   
"She can get mean. And from what I've seen—"   
"From what you've seen, what?"   
Lily took a deep breath. She knew she risked being cursed, as he still had his wand.   
"Well, from what I've seen, she doesn't seem to like you as much as you do."   
"What do you mean?" His tone was icy stale.  
She laid a light hand on his arm, ignoring the tensing of his muscles. "What did you get her for her birthday?"   
"A necklace set and some earrings. Why?"   
"What did she give you for yours?"  
"She didn't. I never told her when it was."   
"Don't you think she should have bothered to find out from someone else?"   
That made James think awhile, and he dropped his head into his hands. "Why are you telling me this?"   
Lily couldn't find an answer to that, so she passed it over. "As far as Eva, Amanda, Sirius, Peter, Remus, the Quidditch team and I can tell, she hasn't spent over two Sickles on you in all these months."   
"So?"   
"I think I've made my point clear. And then there is this—" She pulled a bit of parchment out of her robes, handing it to him.   
"What is that?"   
"Sirius found it on the floor in the common room."   
He shook his head, so she read aloud.   
  
_Cissa__, honey,   
  
I don't know how to thank you for sending me those things. Your father would have gone up into the roof if he had found out that I had spent that much for jewelry—and Mr. Brownes gave me ten Galleons for the gold earrings with the red stones. I don't remember what he gave me for the other stuff, but I got that ring with it, and I'm wearing it to the next housewarming party Marsha's giving. Did you say your boyfriend gave them to you? He really has bad taste in jewelry; none of those things would have gone with my dress. Still, don't tell him that you value his gifts like that; he might start giving you really bad stuff, like one carat gold.   
Dashing off to a party now, doll. Have a wonderful time!   
  
Mother  
  
_ James looked up, a bit stunned, just as she did.   
"But—wait—"   
Lily shook her head. "She gave your presents to her mother. And without thinking twice about it, either."   
"How do you know that?" he challenged.   
"This is Serena. I know her better than you."   
"HOW?" He was fighting to stay in control.   
"It's an old trick. If you want to get to know someone, find out how he or she treats his or her inferiors, not his or her betters. And she considers me her inferior."  
James was silent for a few moments, but he finally stopped gripping his head between his palms. "Lily?"   
"Um?"  
"You're sure you're not doing this as a sort of revenge act?"   
Lily shook her head. "I'm not. I don't really know why I'm doing this, but I guess it's better this way than from her—well, at least you're a bit prepared now."   
He dropped his head again, slouched, and frowned. "Lil, I know you meant well—and well, I do thank you for this. Not because of the information—it's not exactly what I wanted to hear—still, I guess this is what Sirius or Remus would have done." He looked straight at her. "Thanks."   
She bowed her head, knitting her fingers in her lap. "I'm glad you said that."   
"Why?"   
"Well, this was rather risky to do."   
"I know. That's another reason why I'm saying 'thanks'."   
Brushing off her robes, Lily stood up. "Do you need a bit of time alone?"   
"Yeah." He looked up again. "You're a really good friend to have, you know that?"  
She shrugged. "Sometimes. When you're not mad."   
"Yeah," he repeated. He didn't move for several minutes, so Lily started for the door. "Wait!"   
She whirled. "What?"   
He looked pretty depressed as he said this, and she felt herself feeling sorry for him. "Can I have a hug?"   
Her surprised astonishment changed to a half-smile. "Of course."


	34. Chapter XXXIV

He wrapped her in a very tight hug, and with a small start of astonishment, Lily could feel him crying. She pulled away quickly, far enough to see his face.   
"What's wrong?"   
He blinked a bit. "Nothing. Never mind. Actually—well, it's a bit of depression. Normal under the circumstances, right?" His gaze was almost pleading.   
She nodded. "It's all right; I've cried quite a bit. It's not as if I'm going to forbid anyone else to do so."   
He nodded. "You're a brick, Lil. Thanks so much."  
Lily handed him the letter, and he took it, stashing it in a deep pocket.   
"See you sometime. And we have to make up really quickly, and we also have to invent a plausible story for that little act you pulled in the common room."   
Lily shrugged. "I can tell Eva the truth. She knows about Severus, and she's good at thinking up stuff like that."   
"All right. See you. Thanks again." He caught her off guard in another hug.   
When Lily opened the door of her dormitory back up, replaced the key, and went back downstairs, Eva immediately besieged her with questions.   
"What happened? What did you tell him? What did he say?"   
Lily had quite a time telling Eva loudly that it was none of her business and telling her quietly that she'd tell her later, since Sirius and Remus walked up, too. All Lily would tell them was that she wasn't mad anymore, and that they were being entirely too nosy.  
Spring break passed quickly, far too quickly. Lily had been spending a bit more time with James than usual; mostly their talk centered around how to deal with Serena once she got back. And it wasn't easy for James at all, since he still liked Serena. But, after combining the fact that she had squandered what he had given her like it was nothing and the fact that she wrote that letter to Lily that said that her father was dead, he knew that Lily had a point when she told him that Serena wasn't the perfect person he had thought. And, almost before he knew it, he was sitting down to dinner, the night before Serena and the others were scheduled to come back from Easter vacation.  
He flung himself into a chair, sighing loudly and knocking over Lily's book that was propped up against the jug of pumpkin juice. Knowing what made him so miffed, Lily merely retrieved her book from underneath the table.   
"Having a bad day?"   
"That would be tomorrow. Lil, I don't have the guts."   
She looked down at his head, which was the only part of him that she could see; he was slouching so much. "Yes, you do. You won't, though, if you do this the wrong way. They're going to be stuck somewhere in a jar in the Anatomy room."   
He slouched even more. "Thanks a lot!"   
"Anytime."   
Sirius leaned over the table, reaching for a slice of roast beef. "What's up?"   
James groaned, and Lily answered for him. "Serena."   
"Oh." Sirius sat back down. He, Remus, and Peter had been informed about everything the morning after Lily had shown James the letter from Serena's mother, so he was understanding, if not sympathizing. "Well, if you can't tell her, it looks like you're screwed, pal."   
Remus butted in. "What's going on?"   
Sirius and Lily answered together. "Serena."   
"Oh." Remus helped himself to some beef stew. "That's never good."   
"No. It isn't." James was a bit peeved. "I don't know how exactly to handle this."   
Peter shoved his nose in. "Why not? Just tell her that you're dumping her!"   
"Yeah, and how would you know that? You've never spoken to her without stuttering, idiot!" Peter drew back, traffic-light red. "Well, in case you didn't know, I don't especially want the Minister of Magic on my back."   
"Minister of Magic?" Peter was confused.   
"Her father, you double idiot!"   
"Oh." Peter slumped almost as low as James was, but not quite. He wasn't as skilled.   
The rest of dinner passed almost normally, except for the fact that Lily and Sirius almost had to force-feed James. And the next morning at breakfast, good humor seemed to be restored.   
James flung himself into his seat, smiling widely.   
"Morning, all?"   
They all stared at him, then at each other. Lily nodded at Sirius.   
"Definitely sick."   
He nodded. "I thought so. St. Mungo's?"   
"I think this might be too serious for them to handle."   
"You have a point."   
"Oh, shut up." James good-humoredly slammed Lily's book shut and helped himself to some toast.   
"Well, someone's definitely found a way out of their situation. Either that or they've gone insane, and I'm inclined to think the later."   
"Lil, shut up. I've fixed everything."   
Lily's eyebrows shot up. "Why do I doubt that?"   
"I have no idea. You seem to me to be a very mistrustful person. No, really; I sent her a letter last night."   
"Another one?"   
"Sirius!"   
"What's your record? Ten rolls of parchment was the record last night."   
"Sirius!" This came from Lily, James, Eva, Remus, and Peter.   
"Sorry." He wasn't really; you could tell, and he was purposefully making it obvious, but James didn't notice.   
"I told her point-blank, in a roundabout way, that—"   
"Wait!" Lily had held up her hand. "You told her point-blank, in a roundabout way?"  
"Shut up. I told her that I didn't like dealing with her possessiveness. Just more politely than that."   
"Because you're scared of her dad."

"Peter, for the last time, her dad is Rowland Sikora! Yeah, of course I'm scared of her dad!"   
"Oh." Peter obviously had a terrible memory, as he kept forgetting to hide that he did.   
The breakfast owls soared in, and Lily pointed out to James that it was quite unnecessary to look for an owl from Serena, as he had only just sent his owl off last night. Which life James looking rather stupid, though, as Sirius added, it left him looking just as usual.  
That night, the carriages stopped at the castle steps, and, crowding the Great Hall, the students filled the seats. Vanessa looked exhausted, Abigail seemed rather blasè, but Miranda and Nigel were excited; jumping up and down and sideways. They immediately rushed at James, Rebecca, and the rest of the Quidditch team.   
"GUESS WHAT WE GOT!"   
The team looked rather stunned. James was the first to answer.   
"A foot fungus?"   
Miranda immediately punched him in the arm, and Nigel pulled out several pieces of parchment.   
"Tickets to the Quidditch World Cup! For all seven of us! Look! They're holding them in Egypt this year!"   
The Quidditch team was stunned for a moment, but then they rushed at the tickets eagerly.   
"WHAT?"   
"Where'd you get them?"   
"I love you two forever and beyond!"   
"I can't believe it!"  
"You're awesome!"   
"Oh, my gosh! We're going to the Quidditch World Cup! Let me see those things!"   
They were ripped out of Nigel's hands.   
"Easy on them, now. They're only receipts; Dad has the tickets, but they're for the Top Box!"   
There was more squealing and yelling. "THE TOP BOX?!"   
"Yep!" Nigel was basking in this glory. "It's Kurobe against Japan. I think. France might just come through, but Italy's not bad this year. But I'm pretty certain it's gonna be Kurobe and Japan."   
James looked up. "Whaddaya wanna bet it's gonna be Italy and Japan?"   
"Five Galleons."   
"You're on!" James, buried in the huddle around the Gryffindor Quidditch team, didn't see what Eva and Lily saw: a narrow-eyed blonde, clenching a letter in her fist.  
The team finally got to bed around two; they kept all of Gryffindor Tower awake with their excited chatter, and, in the morning, only Serena was well rested. She had purchased earplugs for herself some time back so that no noise could disturb her sleep and give her (oh, horror!) rings under her eyes. And when breakfast jumped up on Monday morning, the team and Serena were the only wide-awake ones. Which, in this case, was not all that good for one particular team member.  
Before James went into the Great Hall, Serena, who had been waiting next to the doors, pulled him out of the doorway.   
"I want to talk to you."   
James wouldn't ever have admitted this to anyone, but the prospect of this interview scared him to pieces.   
"Sure. What about?"   
"You know what about. Why did you dump me?" Tears were glistening in her eyes.   
"Well, for starters, I told you. If you don't like me enough to keep what I gave you, then, well, this just isn't working."   
"How do you know about that? That is—I mean—"  
James gave Lily's answer. He wasn't about to get his friend in trouble with this spitting hyena, even if she didn't care.   
"Sirius."   
"So you're going to believe him over me?"   
"Well, sweetheart, you both have the same statements."   
"We do?" Serena looked disgusted and appalled.   
"Yep. Let me quote—'How do you know about that?'"   
The tears were freely flowing now. "So you're leaving me here, stranded, alone, helpless?"   
"Nope."   
"You're not?" Hope rose high in her face, but it was pulled back down at James' last remark, and it was all she could do to control herself.   
"Nope. Anyone who's as good as lying as you are is never helpless."   
"So—so—so this is over?"   
"This what?"   
"Us. US."   
He shrugged. "Yeah, pretty much."  
That made her lose control. Her sweet, helpless look faded, and her brows rushed together, crinkling up her face.   
"You'll be sorry for that. You just wait. I'll hate you forever, James Potter, and you'll never get out of this mess! You and your little Evans buddy both! You're as good as roadkill, and after my father gets through with you, you'll be worse!"   
"Since when does anyone get sent to Azkaban for dumping his girlfriend? You know, if that were the case, half the world would be in there, not to mention three-fourths of the rest of the universe."  
"RRgh!" Serena made a sort of hissy noise, coming from somewhere deep down inside her throat. It sounded ugly. She realized that just after it came out, and, turning around with a 'humph', she flounced straight for Gryffindor Tower, forgetting that she hadn't had dinner last night and hadn't had breakfast, either.  
Lily stepped out from her post behind a statue. "Very well done indeed! And you didn't get cursed!"   
"I almost did. The only thing that saved me was that the Minister of Magic's daughter has been brought up with the threat of soap if she ever used a bad word."   
"You know very well what I mean."   
"Yeah." He grinned. "So, how did I do?"   
"I told you. Very nicely."

"Good. Thanks to my mentor here!" He gave her a playful hug, and just then, the bell for them to go to classes rang. Lily rolled her eyes as she picked up her bookbag.   
"I'm going to class. See you later."   
"Whatcha got first?"   
"Study of Ancient Runes. Same as I've had the whole year."   
"Oh, right." He smacked himself in the forehead. "Well, see you later, then." They separated and made for their respective classes just as the hordes started pouring out of the Great Hall.  
Lily related the whole scene to Sirius in Study of Ancient Runes, and he came close to getting detention for howling so loudly when Lily told him about the hissy noise. He had to be poked severely before he got the 'shut up' message.   
When lunch rolled around, the news of that morning was all over the school, courtesy of a sixth year, Bertha Jorkins, who had the best memory for gossip and the nosiest personality. Everyone except Serena was in a wonderful mood, which was expected. It would have been rather scary if Serena had been in a good mood. The only thing out of the ordinary that happened that night was a note Remus passed to Lily in Divination.  
  
_Full moon tonight._  
  
Lily looked up at him and nodded shortly. She knew what that meant, and so did Sirius and James, who coolly snatched the note out of her hands as soon as she had finished reading it. However, they exchanged a glance they thought was private, saying as much as 'Tonight'. Several other people caught it, but Lily was the only one that knew about the room they had furnished, and she knew exactly what they were planning to do.   
Remus didn't show up for dinner; he was already inside the Whomping Willow. The common room emptied itself around ten, but Lily had slipped into her black cloak and nightgown at nine. She had hidden herself behind the blankets covering the walls in the 'Animagi room', as she called it, at nine-thirty, when Sirius and James entered, at ten, she was completely concealed; not even a scrap of clothing peeked out.  
Yawning a bit, the boys entered, throwing a stack of quills and rolls of parchment onto the floor. Sirius flipped the blanket covering the secret closet aside and opened it, pulling out several books.  
"Say, what were you supposed to be working on tonight?"   
"The meditation research. Only problem is, we've only got Volumes I and II. We need III."   
"I know. But Pince hoards it like a vulture. I set off the alarm the other night when I went in there."   
"I know you did. I could hear that annoying screech all the way up here. Pince needs to get a better alarm."   
"It's a good thing you have that cloak."   
"I know. Very good thing. But it's not going to be any use if you keep tripping the alarm."   
Sirius dumped the large amount of parchment into the closet and closed it. "Well, excuse me! You're going for it next time!"   
"I was about to suggest that. What was Peter supposed to be doing before he decided he was too tired?"   
"Copying down the non-standard procedures. He's already got the basic ones down, but he needs to get to work on the meditation notes."   
"He doesn't copy fast, does he?"   
"You're asking?" Sirius' jaw almost dropped.   
"Oh, right. Still, have you found the pronunciation yet in that book?"   
"It's two thousand pages long. No."  
"But you did find out whether we get to pick our animals or not, didn't you?"   
"Yeah."  
"So?"   
Sirius shrugged. "We don't. The animal looks like we do. Unless we can find this other book, we can't choose. If we really don't want to, though, we can go ahead and do it next month."   
"And risk coming out a goldfish? No thanks! We'll wait."   
"You're sure?"   
"Positive!"   
They didn't say much the rest of the night; they were mostly copying down things and doing calculations. Lily was starting to think that she would love to wash those musty blankets in a good, strong, sweet-smelling detergent, and she almost sneezed several times. When the boys packed up their work, Lily felt it was none too soon, being two in the morning. She had to stay in her place, however, for a few minutes after they left, and even then she came pretty close to being caught, as James had forgotten to close the closet door and had to come back and do it. Finally, however, she got back into bed.  
  
April passed in a blur, May was starting, and the teachers were heaping more work than usual on them, seeing that O.W.L.s were next year and the exams were coming up. The common room at night was filled with whining and groaning, and most of the fourth years passed on the offered trip to Hogsmeade. Lily was getting fed up with explaining to people the right way to make Divination predictions and to dissect spiders, and she was ready for bed long before anyone else was.   
But sleep made her a bit clumsy, so when she pulled her jewelry box out of her trunk, so as to put her earrings in it, it crashed to the floor. Her eyes widened. The elf-nymph necklace was in there, and if it hit the floor without her—She grabbed it quickly, but she knocked it against the corner of the trunk. Immediately, she was caught up in the familiar whirlwind, heading to the Alendoren Cove, frightened out of her wits.  
She landed with a soft bump, right in front of Tom. As he jumped up in surprise, she was able to stifle a small gasp of fright and astonishment.   
"Lily!"   
"Tom! Goodness!"   
He helped her up. "Hullo. Guess what."

"What?"   
"I'm progressing!"   
"Huh?" Lily spit out a mouthful of sand.   
"I've discovered several more methods for immortality."   
"More?"   
"Yeah!" By this time they were inside the cave. "Just think of it! I might be running the world someday!"   
"Happy, happy, joy, joy." Lily was tired.   
Litharelen, in more or less homo sapien form (she had legs instead of her tail), was lying on the floor, dozing softly, but she jumped up as soon as Lily and Tom entered, smoothing her dark green gown.   
"Lily! Where'd you come from?"   
"My bed. Which is where I wish I was."   
"Oh, really." Tom pulled a pitcher of something liquid out of the shelf. "Come on, perk up. Have something to drink."   
Litharelen raised her head lazily. "It's litaleter. Be careful."   
Lily smiled and took a glass filled with the liquid light from Tom. "Thanks."   
"So—" Tom stretched, knocking into a bookshelf—"what's new where you are?"   
"Nothing, really. I suppose—well, did you get your book open?"   
"I did." He grinned proudly, but then his smile faded. "But it's too late to bring either of out parents back."  
Lily pulled her face into a sad sort of pout. "I know. But I guess I should have known I can't change death."   
"Yeah…" He looked over at her. "Guess what?"   
"What?"   
"The Ministry isn't happy at all that I'm going for immortality. This may be war."   
Lily jumped, whirling around to look at him. Unfortunately, he was serious.   
"Tom!"  
"I can't help it."   
"You can, too! Who says you have to be immortal?"   
"Lily, it's my dream! Think of it! I could rule the world!"   
"And what good would that do you, once you're the Supreme Hi-yu-mighty-muck-a-muck of all things? Just tell me that, Tom Riddle! Tell me! Don't stand there gaping like a scared fish; tell me!"   
She was angry now, angrier than she had been in days, weeks, months even. He hair was waving wildly about her face, unnerving even Tom, and she might have gone on yelling at him for ages if Litharelen hadn't interrupted.   
"Lily?"   
The redhead whirled. "What?"   
"Lily, he won't learn. It's no good. I tried; believe me. Come down and help me brush Svordsja down?"   
Lily was puzzled, but still a bit fiery. "Svordsja?"   
Litharelen laughed at her surprise. "Come!" She took Lily's arm and they left the cave, running lightly over glittering white sands bordering frothing white waves of foam. They quickly came to a small hut, almost hidden by an overhanging cliff. Litharelen opened the door, moving forward to greet something or someone inside. Lily heard soft sounds of brushing, and a few quiet murmurings, and then Litharelen came to the door.  
"Come on! But don't get too close–she doesn't like anyone except me and Tom."   
Lily followed her inside, and what she saw there literally took her breath away and rendered her speechless.   
True, she had seen a unicorn once, from a distance, when she was watching a Care of Magical Creatures class from a window, and she had used grated and powdered horn of a bicorn, but she had never seen anything like this animal. It was clear that it belonged to the same sort of family; the glossy coat was a pearly white, the adornment on the forehead a mixture of pearl and silver, and the mane and tail silver thread. Its eyes were calm and cool, black and liquid, sweet yet dangerous. Magnificent and awe-inspiring, its head towered four feet above her, and when it pawed the ground, the sparkling sand crusted the pearly hooves. Lily had never heard of anyone seeing one of these in the last century.  
Unicorns weren't as rare; neither were bicorns. This one, however, had five. Five beautiful silver-and-white entwined points, each growing from a small point in the animal's forehead, billowing out and coming together at the tips where they were fastened to each other by their own vine-like points. The crown-like constellation reminded Lily of something–her fingers clasped around her own midnight-blue and gold necklace, and she fingered the five talons that held the stone in place. Of course! The space inside the graceful tangle of the pentacorn's horn was just the right size for a stone like her own, like Litharelen's, only much larger. Lily moved forward tentatively, but she retreated as the animal snorted loudly; pawed the ground.  
Litharelen had vanished for a minute, but she reappeared then, carrying a pitcher full of something that frothed and bubbled. Lily recognized the scent of the iridescent liquid–it was the same dew that the waters of the Alendoren Cove were made of. Steaming and foaming, Litharelen poured it into a basin next to the pentacorn, who immediately started to drink deep drafts, snorting steam every once in a while.   
Litharelen laughed lightly at Lily's amazement. "So, you've never seen anyone like Svordsja before?"   
"No. It–she–she's beautiful. I've never seen anything like her."   
"Of course not." Litharelen seated herself on the sands of the stable floor, patting Svordsja's flank. "She's one of the beauties of her kind, and they surpass all other creatures, both in power and in splendor."   
"I can see why! But what about the unicorns and such?"   
Litharelen sniffed. "They! They're mere imitations! Of course," she amended, looking a bit scornful, "maybe I shouldn't say that."   
"Imitations?"   
"Not really. They started out just like Svordsja, beautiful and tall, with the tiara-horns. But then Man–" here she gave another sniff–"tried to make them produce heirs with not only five, but six, seven, ten. It backfired, and unicorns came out, mostly. We have hardly any of Svordsja's kind left, now."   
"Oh. I see. I do wish–I do wish we hadn't done that." Lily looked up at the solemn creature; she still had to do so even though Svordsja had knelt down on the sands and Litharelen was using her as an armchair.

Without thinking about anything she did, Lily stood up, slowly, from the stone bench she had been sitting on. Svordsja looked up, frightened.   
Lily moved about five centimeters per minute, and Litharelen, after putting a pale hand on Svordsja's heart, stared at Lily, puzzled. She didn't stop Lily from moving forward. Slowly, carefully, Lily inched forward over the floor. It seemed ages before the willful beast lifted her head and stared right into her eyes, ages before she was within a foot of the noble head, aeons before the pentacorn slowly inclined her head towards Lily's hand.  
Litharelen let out a deep breath. "How'd you do that?"   
"Do what?" Lily was hardly moving her mouth.   
"Svordsja–she can't stand anyone besides Tom and me! She broke my mother's leg once–why's she trusting you?"   
"I don't know. Cats like me."   
"But those are cats. This–" she lightly jerked her armchair's head towards her–"this is a pentacorn. They're terribly shy."  
Tom stuck his head in the doorway, stopped, and let out a low whistle.   
"Lily! How on earth–" He started to smile craftily, with the adventurous sparkle in his eyes. Lily knew that smile.  
"Tom?"   
"Do you want to learn how to ride?"   
Litharelen jumped up. "Tom! Svordsja could kill her! You don't know what you're doing!"   
Tom ignored her. "Lily?"   
Lily took one look at the pentacorn sniffing her palm, feeling the cool breath of the animal on her hand, and she made up her mind.   
"If Svordsja will let me."   
Every spare weekend from then on, every moment that Lily had to herself when she was sure that no one would bother her, she spent at the Alendoren Cove, with Tom and Svordsja. The pentacorn itself was one of the friendliest magical creatures she had ever known, and once she got used to riding bare-back on a mount nine feet high, counting its head, she lost herself in the speed of the animal as it galloped over sands, between clashing waves, usually under glowing moonbeams.  
There was another thing about pentacorns Lily learned that May; they were the fastest creatures ever known to any living thing, including any extinct beings. When Tom finally let her gallop by herself, Svordsja took off towards the sea. Lily should have been holding on for dear life, but something seemed to weld her and Svordsja together as they plunged through the waves. She never fell off; not once, and Tom and Litharelen were almost dumbstruck at the ease with which Lily could make the pentacorn rear, beating its hooves against the sky, and come down lightly, without making Lily slip an inch towards the ground.  
Soon riding became second nature to her, just as breathing did. Tom told her that if she tried to get on a regular horse's back, she'd find it about as challenging as flipping a light switch. But when June loomed up, she had to stop her frequent nightly rides, as the exams were getting more real every day. She only came twice; when the rest of the school went to Hogsmeade and when she told her friends she had to speak to Dumbledore, and then the visits were over much too soon. She never felt as at peace as when she was on Svordsja's back, thundering over the beach and threading through boulders, but it always ended far too soon.   
Lily had noticed that Tom was always busy when she arrived; he was usually flipping through volumes or writing letters. He had acquired three regular barn owls for this purpose, and they were hardly ever at rest in their cages. Once she had even surprised him conferring with about three people–one was elderly, with a long white beard; Tom called him Macnair. The other two she knew to be the fathers of two of the Slytherins: one, Nott, had a brown mustache and a silver girdle, the other, whose name was Avery, had a weak sort of whitish goatee, though he couldn't be over forty.   
They Apparated, however, as soon as she stepped inside the cave, and Tom had closed his book and flung a cloak on over his head, it being windy outside. Lily had asked him who those people were, and his answer was "Ministry officials." It was all he would say on the subject, however, and he was starting to get somewhat tense.  
And something else started happening–to Lily, though. She usually had a glass of the litaleter or dove under the waves to see Litharelen, if she wasn't there when she arrived. Litharelen was always a good mentor for the riding lessons; she could control the pentacorn with a touch of her hand on Svordsja's neck, and she was the one who pointed out, when Tom was trying to demonstrate, that he would actually stay on if he would grip her flanks harder with his knees. And the result was, whenever she left the water or put a glass of the liquid silver light down, that she started to change again.  
Her hearing started to sharpen and her ears would lengthen to a tiny point; her eyesight grew keener as he eyes grew more snake-like with silver threads crossed through them. The silver streaks would appear in her hair, her skin even started to acquire a bit of a pearly glow. But most of those things faded within a half-hour of returning to England; all except the heightened senses and the glow from her skin. And, every time she returned to the cove, the effects would last longer. Not that she minded; she really actually enjoyed the strangeness of her reflection whenever she glanced at the sea from Svordsja's back.   
However, in June, those things were driven out of her head by the upcoming exams. She studied hard this time; studied practically every night from five to six, then from seven to twelve. It wasn't such a drawback, helping other people; it actually helped her fix the facts in her own mind. There are just so many times you can hear the words, "The average baby unicorn has four hundred bones in its horn" before they become fixed in one's mind, and Lily had heard them several million times.  
She had won twenty points for Gryffindor in the Anatomy essay they had been assigned on the subject of pentacorn endangerment, which had several thousand facts about them that could not be found in the books. Professor Maar was very pleased.   
The Transfiguration exam was by far the hardest for most. Transfiguring a painting of a miracle (the picture was of three men fitting into a boat that would hardly have held a dog before capsizing) into a hand-painted lampshade was something they hadn't had much practice with (points were added according to how pretty the lampshade was and extra bonus points were given if it had a stand, but taken away if the lampshade was disfigured; Sirius tried that.


	35. Chapter XXXV

He had Transfigured his miracle very nicely, into a hand-painted lampshade, but it was slashed and disfigured and dusty. It did him no good to complain that it was a lampshade.), and, accordingly, it was difficult. However, the hardest exam for Lily was the Divination one, where she had to pretend to be seeing the future in a pack of cards. It was hard enough, breathing in that room, but when one has to think up convincing stories, the mind shuts down because of the strain. Lily had had to find a way around that.  
  
She did, too. Professor Trelawney never noticed that Lily was seeing odd patterns in the hanging beads that covered the doorway to her office, like birds, three sun-things, and an ax. She was also ignorant of the fact that Lily had no yellow canary with blue feathers (a bit of a contradiction). So when Lily told her teacher that someone would chop off her canary's head with an ax in three days, Professor Trelawney was surprised and pleased. Lily was rather amused.  
  
That exam over, they only had two others left: History of Magic and Defense Against the Dark Arts. History of Magic was held in a different classroom; James and Sirius having tried to cancel the exams by dropping a large crate of Dungbombs next to Professor Binns' chair before he entered. It failed, though; as Professor McGonagall pointed out, there were several hundreds of empty classrooms in Hogwarts and the existence of detentions. And Professor Binns liked to go to sleep early after making his notes for the next day's lesson, so he had no intention of giving the whole class detention (no one told him who did it), or, indeed, of thinking up different detentions for each person in the class. James looked as if he wanted to strangle Professor McGonagall when she pointed that out. However, Sirius mentioned that she would probably fight back and probably win, so James dropped that.  
  
They had to sit through hour after hour of writing down names and dates and sites of famous battles and Lily was wondering, when she was through, what kind of drugs the mothers of goblins must have been on to name their children 'Urg the Unclean' and other interesting names of that sort. It was a great relief when lunch came around and they could leave the classroom that hadn't been dusted in years, it seemed. Professor Binns appeared to be used to dust, and he was wondering at the sneezing fits people got frequently. He evidently thought that the remedy for that was rapping his knuckles on his desk asking for silence, but he also evidently thought wrong.  
  
Lunch had never tasted so good. And the Great Hall had never seemed so dust- free. Everyone that had just come out of that classroom was either, a), ticked at Sirius and James, b), dusting themselves viciously all over while yawning violently, or c), all of the above. Lily was a tiny bit of a) and quite a bit of b), though she was the only one that wasn't quite a bit of a).  
  
Defense Against the Dark Arts was fun, for a change. Professor Vouladka had rounded up a boggart and three Red Caps; also a few grindylows and two creatures no one had ever seen before. They seemed to be a cross between a scaly sort of water creature and a baby dragon, but they had the most annoying spell-repelling shells anyone had ever seen. Lily managed to hit Abigail in the eye with a Shrinking Spell when she ducked out of the way of the bluish-green blast issuing back at her. Abigail wasn't too happy when she found that she had a pea-sized eyeball rolling around in a rather large socket, and she continued to be miffed all through lunch. Finally, after the hundred thirty-second "I'm sorry" from Lily (James had counted), Lily gave up and left Abigail by herself to sulk while she went outside with Eva to lie on the grass, counting stars. Eva got one thousand two hundred thirty-three; Lily got one thousand fifteen hundred eighty-six and a half. Which, as Eva pointed out, was a bit unrealistic, but Lily didn't care. Half of a star was just as good a unit as a whole star, and that thing that was white but didn't twinkle up there near the North Tower didn't deserve to be counted as a whole star. Stars twinkled, Lily said, firmly, and if you didn't twinkle you had no right to call yourself a star.  
  
The next week was Heaven. Or Hell, if you counted the blazing heat the sun seemed to have fun giving off. But there were no lessons, no homework, no detentions (if you were lucky, which Peter wasn't; he had the odd gift of ticking off Professor McGonagall by doing absolutely nothing at all), and the only thing you had to worry about was how to avoid three vicious fourth years with all the time in the world on their hands. Though Lily didn't have to worry about that. She had already started on her summer work, and she lashed out viciously at anyone who dared to disturb her. The scars on Peter's arm were evidence of that.  
  
By the time that there was only a day of time spent at Hogwarts left (you couldn't really call it school, since the only thing one learned was how to evacuate quickly if Dungbombs were dropped), Lily had finished all of her summer work and had turned it in to her teachers. She had to assure her friends and acquaintances frequently that she was not going for an extended stay at St. Mungo's, but she had the odd feeling they didn't believe her.  
  
It was a blazing day outside; blazing hot rays of sunshine, that is. Every single student was outside on the lawns, preferably under a tree and close to the lake. Serena was a bit envied by several of the girls; about five boys had jumped up, giving her their seats. But Lily and Amanda, who were the ones left sitting on the grass with no sort of protection over them, got a bit fed up with the heat, threw off the annoying black robes, rolled up their pants legs and shirt sleeves, removed their socks and shoes, and jumped right into the lake, ignoring the threat of a month's detention for everyone if one student jumped in the lake.  
  
It was refreshingly cool; and within a few minutes of splashing each other and tripping over rocks in the lake floor, they were completely soaked. The grounds, which a minute before had been filled with groans and noises of parchment being made into fans, were within instants teeming with splashing noises and small yelps and giggles and laughter. Also sparks and other things of the sort. Severus and his friends were cursing and jinxing everything in sight; in fact, Lily wasn't sure that he didn't use the Imperious Curse on Peter, making him jump in and out of the water, squealing like a pig before the slaughter, besides turning odd-looking somersaults in the air. It was rather amusing to look at, and, since everyone had been laughing at him, Peter didn't have the nerve to go and tell a teacher. Serena, Sheila, and Co. were the only ones left sitting on the grounds. They had no intention of getting their hair wet with that lake water, which no doubt held all of the refuse from all the toilets in Hogwarts. Besides, they might get wet. But, after a few minutes, of sitting down and avoiding droplets of water sprinkling the air, Diana threw up her hands and joined the crowd. Serena gasped affectedly when Miranda tripped her and she went flying, face-first, into a sort of hole in the lake bottom, but she sniffed and turned away when Diana came up spluttering with choked giggles. Lily was quite happy to see Diana break out of Serena's group; she really was a bit too shallow for comfort while she was in that clique. But when the real Diana surfaced, she was a quite agreeable person that laughed easily.  
  
They had to get out of the lake before a teacher saw them, but even so, they came close to being caught when Professor Zimmermann saw them rushing for the showers, dripping wet. They didn't know if she was taken in by Lily's "Potter and Sirius have discovered giant water balloons," but, then again, she was a rather clueless person, even though she was a teacher. When they finally got back into their respective common rooms, the carpets were soaked with residue of shampoo and cold water, and the bathrooms were completely empty of towels; every girl had one around her head.  
  
They were all rather exhausted from laughing and swimming and dunking each other, so the only energy they had left was spent in wondering if Dumbledore had heard of such a thing as air conditioning, trying to see if a powdery instant coffee creamer was flammable (it was) and whether or not the Exploding Snap cards would still explode if they were wet (they didn't). It had been the nicest day anyone had ever had in a long time.  
  
All too soon, it was time for them to go to bed, and all too soon it was time for them to leave the school so as to catch the Hogwarts Express back home. Eva, Lily, Vanessa, Amanda, and Diana got a compartment together, near the back of the train. They amused themselves for the last few hours of their legal magic use by adding multicolored, curly, boingy, furry tails to whoever poked his or her head inside the compartment; all except the witch with the cart. When they got off of the train, Peter had one with sprouty little leaf things on it (it was Amanda's first try), Remus three, Sirius six and a half (Vanessa had messed up her spell), James seven, Serena one, Severus and Lucius four each, and Bertha Jorkins fourteen. Ever since she had gotten the idea into her head that James dumped Serena because of a certain red-head, she had taken to following Lily wherever she went, and they had caught her listening outside their compartment door numerous times. It was a great load of fun to see the odd stares she got when she stepped through the barrier to the Muggle world.  
  
Mr. Evans and Petunia met Lily when she stepped through the barrier, pushing the usual heavy trolley in front of her. She was welcomed back with breath-murdering hugs, and, when they got outside King's Cross, blinking in the sunlight, Lily discerned the outlines of a new car that her father was loading the trunk into. A sort of a champagne color, it gleamed brightly. Petunia was swelling with pride as she saw the look on Lily's face.  
  
"I picked it out. Don't you like it?"  
  
"I do. I do." Lily was making a violent 'yes' with her head, almost blinding herself with the whip-like strands of hair that were lashing the air.  
  
It was rather quiet to drive in; not as loud and squeaky as their other car had been, and it didn't break down quite so much whenever they had to stop suddenly. All in all, it was a rather nice car, and Lily had to admit that Petunia had nice taste, in cars, at least.  
  
The beginning of that summer was wonderful. Lily had received several invitations to Eva's, Amanda's, Severus', and Lucius'. She'd turned them down temporarily, however, because she hadn't seen her family at Easter at all. Her father still had to work when she and Petunia were at home, but that wasn't really all that bad; they were left by themselves to make messes in the kitchen, visit some of Lily's old friends, and simply talk, sitting on Lily's bed.  
  
Petunia might be extremely nosy, but she was still nice to have as a sister, Lily realized. They would sit on Lily's bed for hours, talking about meaningless things like Serena's face when James got rid of her (Petunia especially liked that), the question in Geometry Petunia knew she got right but the teacher simply hated her, and the fight she'd just had with Vernon.  
  
But before long, two weeks into the summer vacation, to be exact, Lily started to leave the house at every possible opportunity. Petunia and her friends had started inviting boys over, and Lily didn't like it much when they started to stare at her. It simply made her writhe inside, almost as if she had just stepped onto a stage wearing nothing but a towel. And when Petunia started going around, introducing her to some of the boys and mentioning to them how well Lily had managed the household, it started to get really uncomfortable for Lily. Which is why she would usually be found spending the day at Amanda's, who lived four blocks away. She had to walk for a bit, but she didn't mind so much.  
  
It was about three days before her birthday when she found herself on another jog down to Amanda's. Petunia was going to a party at the neighborhood pool, and Lily didn't want to stay in the house all alone, with nothing much to do. So, when she rounded the corner that turned onto Amanda's street, she was terribly startled as someone ran right into her, knocking her off of her feet, making her fall backwards onto the hot asphalt.  
  
"You've never missed a summer without making me fall onto the street, have you? Will you quit!"  
  
James stretched a hand out to help her up. "Sorry about that. Didn't see you."  
  
Lily swung herself up off of the ground. "Oh, sure."  
  
"I am. What are you doing here?"  
  
She stared. "I might ask you that same thing! I live here, all right?"  
  
"You do?"  
  
"No; in Fourdrica."  
  
"Huh? Where's that?" He looked genuinely puzzled.  
  
"It's my imaginary country, doofus. It didn't exist till about five seconds ago."  
  
"Oh." He helped her dust herself off. "Where you going?"  
  
"Amanda's. What about you?"  
  
He grimaced. "My cousin's. He's a Muggle, but Mom adores him. I don't know why, and I don't want to know why."  
  
"That bad, huh?"  
  
"He pinches my cheek. I hate that."  
  
"And of course, you're always delighted when he does."  
  
"Oh, definitely.  You're going to Amanda's now?"  
  
Lily rolled her eyes.  "No; the Tooth Fairy palace."  
  
"Oh."  He pulled a wallet out of his back pocket, and, evidently finding it empty, turned to Lily.  "Mind if I come with you?  I'm currently broke."  
  
Shaking her head, Lily turned the corner.  "I would say all right, but the problem is, when I'm around you, we end up fighting.  Every single time we talk."  
  
He scratched his head.  "You have a point.  Want to try to make it a first time?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Come on!  Why not?"  
  
Lily kicked at a small pebble that was in her way, sending it into a trash can.  "No."  
  
"Hey, I'd like to have some fun once in a while, too!  I hate being stuck at my cousin's."  
  
"Get used to disappointment."  
  
He shook his head.  "You're a rude little brat, you know that?"  
  
"And you're some things I won't mention because there are small children that live in this neighborhood."  
  
"You little thirteen-year-old brat!"  
  
"Fourteen in three days.  I told you we'd start fighting!"  
  
James looked rather sheepish.  "I guess we are, aren't we?"  
  
"You and your powers of deduction, Mr. Holmes."  
  
"They're great, aren't they?"  
  
"No."  
  
He came close to coming back with a smart retort, but changed the subject instead.  "Your birthday's in three days?"  
  
"It was three hundred sixty-two days ago.  What's wrong with you?"  
  
"In other words, yes."  
  
"Um," Lily agreed, trying to swat a wasp that was humming loudly around her head.  
  
He shrugged and put an arm around her shoulders.  "What do you say, want to try to turn over a new leaf?"  
  
Lily eyed his arm suspiciously.  "Get your hand off of my shoulder."  
  
"Fine."  He removed it, wrinkling his nose a bit.  "You're really touchy, you know that?"  
  
Lily frowned.  Then, sighing loudly, she gave up.  
  
"You're right.  I'm sorry.  I'm just not in the best of moods right now."  
  
"Really?"  James looked concerned.  "What's wrong?"  
  
"Nothing.  I'm just feeling really edgy and mean."  
  
"Huh."  James frowned, too, but his didn't last long as he caught sight of a house and its inhabitant across the street.  "Look; there's Amanda.  Are you letting me come, too?"  
  
Lily looked at him quizzically, but then grinned widely.  "Sure.  We're planning to go swimming.  Want to come?"  
  
James smiled, too.  "Perfect.  I was planning to escape to the neighborhood pool."  
  
"That would be a bad idea.  Petunia's practically taken it over.  Amanda has her own."  
  
"Oh, awesome!"  
  
Lily sniffed good-naturedly.  "But don't set your sights on a black marble basin.  This is white tile and chlorinated water."  
  
"It's water, isn't it?  Come on!"  
  
He pulled her forward to Amanda, who stared at James, a bit puzzled."Lily, I thought you said you didn't have guests?""I don't.  I met this git on the street.  He wants to come swimming.""Oh."  Amanda propelled both of them inside.  "Sure.  Eva's over here, and so is Vanessa, and Miranda.  You're gonna have to put up with us girls; you know that, don't you?"James smiled.  "What could be better?  Do I have any competition?"Lily rolled her eyes as she withdrew into the bathroom.  "Is that all you ever think about?""Pretty much, yeah," he yelled as she slammed the door.When Lily emerged, in her newer black suit, James was already changed and leaning back on a lawn chair, talking animatedly with Miranda about the Quidditch World Cup.  "Is that all they ever talk about," Amanda whispered in her ear.Lily sighed.  "Yeah, just about.  It's sad that I know that.""It is.  Come on.  I'll race you."  She threw off the towel she had been wearing, and, immediately, she and Lily dove into the water.  
  
Lily was already leaning on the edge of the pool, tsking to herself as Amanda's head broke the surface."You know, that's why two-piece suits with frilly stuff on them are really pretty stupid to wear.""Oh yeah, Miss Streamlined?""Yeah.""Fine!  We'll try again!  Eva," to the blonde watching the race.  "Mind saying 'go' for us?"Eva slid into the water.  "I'll even stand at the other end to see who comes in first."  She suited the action to the word, she hit the water forcefully, as the "Ready, set, GO!" rang though the air.This time it was a bit closer, but not much.  Lily only won by about two feet.  "Amanda, I'd suggest switching that pink thing for something else."Amanda snorted.  "How about yours?""No.  NO.  Black is nice.  I will not wear pink.  I refuse to wear pink.  Don't even think that you can make me wear pink of my own free will.""Honestly."  Amanda switched from her dead-man's float to a float on her back.  "James Potter!"  
  
The called immediately jumped up from the lawn chair.  "Yeah?""Would you race this brat over here?  She's insisting that she's the best one around here."Lily's "I did not!" came a bit too late, for James was already in the water when it was half out of her mouth."All right, Evans, let's see!  Come on!"  He had been working on his swimming and Lily knew that.  However, this was a challenge, and she wasn't about to turn it down."Ten laps.  Eva, say go!"They were both clinging to the wall of the pool within seconds, feet poised against it, ready to kick off.  When Eva hit the water with a foam mat, they took off, streaking through the water.  They were neck to neck for the first few seconds, but when Lily saw James trying to knock her out of his way, she did a quick dive downwards, near the bottom of the pool.It was impossible for her to come back up for air now, and, out of the way of any annoying currents, she completed the first and second lap without a problem.  The third one was going well, and she was pleased to note that her opponent was a few inches behind her, though he was on the surface and she on the bottom.  Around the seventh one, she started running out of air, and her strokes became a bit wilder.  On the ninth, she was rising to the top, exhausted, and, three feet away from the finish line with James ten inches behind her, she desperately reached for the edge.  Suddenly, however, something struck her on the head, and everything went a sort of glazed white behind her eyelids.James reached the wall triumphantly, leaping out. "All right! Who's the man?Evans, I beat you this time!" His grin was infectious, and Vanessa, Eva, Miranda,and Amanda started laughing, too. After a few seconds, when Lily didn't emerge,he slowly realized something was wrong.  
  
"Hey–where's Lily? She didn't climb out, did she?"  
  
Eva shook her head. "No–Lily? Lily!" She stood up and walked to the pool, thenclapped her hands to her mouth and let out a piercing shriek. "Lily!" Her friend was floating near the bottom of the pool, dark red hair spread out overher face and entangling the water in its web. James and everyone else rushed tothe edge. Then he let out a small laugh."Lil, you can come up now! We know you're shamming!" He turned to the girls.  
  
"She really had me fooled for a while. Where did she learn how to play dead like  
  
that?"A bit reassured, Miranda and Vanessa regained their armchairs, and James, aftera few seconds, went to join them, but another shriek from Eva stopped him deadin his tracks.  
  
"Lily!"  
  
Everyone sped back to the pool as fast as they could. As soon as they stareddown into the pool, it was obvious to everyone why Eva had screamed. The form was still floating limply near the bottom, but a red tint was staining thewater for several inches around her head and neck. The girls stood there, frozento the tiles, and James knew enough not to expect any help from them. Ignoringthe towel he had wrapped around his waist, he dived in, towards the bottom. It was pretty deep; about ten or twelve feet, and before he had reached Lily, his ears started to pound. He ignored the stain that was dyeing his surroundings,and, with a bit of a shudder, he grasped the limp girl around the waist. Ashudder, for he had caught sight of an injury on her head. It was on the back ofher skull, and at least a square inch of complete red was visible. More than thathe couldn't see; the water was too chlorinated. Nevertheless, he pulled herupwards, kicking the bottom of the pool for greater speed.  
  
His head broke the surface within seconds. Panting and frightened, he pulled Lily up.  
  
"Some one get me a towel! Now!"  
  
Vanessa obeyed quickly. A white bit of cloth was wrapped around Lily's head, andJames tried unsuccessfully to push her onto dry land.  
  
"She's too heavy. Someone at least grab her hand and pull!"  
  
Eva and Miranda immediately took hold of Lily. Vanessa was clearing a lawnchair; Amanda had run for her mother. Together, it took them barely ten secondsto get their friend out of the water. Gasping for breath, they lifted her onto thechair just as Mrs. Milton rushed out, accompanied  
  
Lily tried to sit up again but failed. "Where is Dad?" She winced. Amanda put a hand on her arm.  
  
"Making coffee in the kitchen. He and Jameshaven't gone to sleep since you got hurt."  
  
"Really?" Eyes wide, she turned to James. "You bothered?" A bit sheepish, but more concerned, he sort of half-nodded. "Of course. You don't expect me not to, do you?"  
  
"Well–kind of. I haven't exactly been the nicest person to you, have I?"  
  
"That's beside the point."  
  
"I'm too tired to argue." Her head dropped limply back and she fell into ahalf-doze, half-blackout just as her father entered the room. She kept waking up for a few seconds over the next few days, and she alwayssaw the same people there, with the addition of her sister. The only thing she atewas a thin sort of potato soup; about a bowl every other day. It was all she couldmanage; every time she stayed awake for too long, her head would start to swimand she would get faintly nauseous. But, three weeks after her accident, she wasable to eat a full meal and sit up without feeling nauseous. It was a ratherby a yapping poodle.  
  
overdone reaction; no one else that anyone knew of had ever reacted this badlyto only a slight head wound, so everyone was on pins and needles during thosethree weeks. When she started to recover, though, she did so rapidly, and withinfour weeks of her accident, she was walking, running even, and going abouteverything that she had done before. Still, every time she bent over suddenly or strained herself too much lifting boxes or anything of the sort, the same well of nausea would overcome her, and she'd have to sit down for a while.  
  
One morning, seven weeks into summer vacation, Lily was setting the table for alate breakfast for her and her sister; her father had already eaten; he had leftfor the office two hours ago. Lily was carrying the stack of toast and pancakes to the table when the doorbell rang.  
  
Carefully, Lily set the loaded plate down on the table. Petunia ran for the door;opened it, and shouted for her sister.  
  
"Lily, it's for you. That Potter kid."  
  
Lily went to the door, writhing a bit, knowing that James had heard Petunia call him 'that Potter kid'. He didn't think that she called him that behind his back, did he? But why would she care what he thought? Her musings were interrupted by Petunia, who dragged her into the doorway and then abruptly vanished. As soon  
  
as she had shut the kitchen door, James burst out laughing.  
  
"She doesn't really like me, does she?"  
  
"Obviously not. I'm sorry about that."  
  
"It's okay." He stepped inside. "I came to see how you were doing."  
  
"Oh." Lily ushered him inside the kitchen, to Petunia's annoyance. "Fine, I think.  
  
Have something to eat?"  
  
"Sure!" He took the plate of bacon, toast, and pancakes that was offered, and  
  
Lily wondered idly why she even bothered to ask. She walked over to the cabinet,  
  
searching for maple syrup. Meanwhile, James was trying to start a conversation  
  
with Petunia.  
  
"So…how are you?"  
  
Petunia started, then assumed the look of a hunted rabbit, peeled eyes and all.  
  
"Er–"  
  
"Having a good summer?"  
  
"Erm."  
  
"Er–where do you go to school?"  
  
Petunia found her tongue. "Somewhere civilized"  
  
"Oh." James was finding this rather difficult. "I–er–I hope you like it there."  
  
This remark fell on deaf ears. Petunia was thinking to herself how much shewould love to use a large amount of something sticky on James' hair, somethingthat would make it lie flat. She had corn syrup in mind.  
  
"Have you been to Diagon Alley at all?"  
  
"Yes. I wish I hadn't."  
  
Unfazed, James continued. "So, next time you go, drop by Fortescue's ice cream place. I can give you and Lil discounts and stuff; I'm working there now."  
  
Lily came back with the glass syrup bottle. "Really? Part-or full-time?"  
  
"Part-time. Dad wants me to get a job even though he knows I'll not have to  
  
later on."  
  
"Oh, right." He had told her once before that his family was terribly rich. "I'll drop by, then. When do you work there?"  
  
"One to five, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday."  
  
"Okay. Orange juice or chocolate milk or milk or chocolate chip bread or cinnamon sugar for the toast?"  
  
Petunia wiped her lips with a napkin. "Milk." 


	36. Chapter XXXVI

Sirius pulled them along into Flourish and Blotts, where they each got all of the supplies they needed. Lily and James' included a highly advanced Anatomy book; Lily was excited when she pulled it off of the shelf, and even more so when she flipped through it. This was to be her book for the next three years; fifth, sixth, and seventh, and her eyes widened appreciatively when she saw, in the back, a full diagram of the systems of both the elf-nymph and the pentacorn, which hardly differed from the unicorn. The Transfiguration book was the usual; hardly demanding, as was the new Defense Against the Dark Arts one. They were supposed to be getting a new one, which was good, depending on the quality of the teacher. They stepped out of Flourish and Blotts, and the first place they went to was a joke shop. Lily had to be dragged in there against her will, for she didn't put it past either of the boys to drop a firecracker down the back of her shirt. However, although she didn't stand with her back to the wall all the time, she still managed to get out of the shop without having sparks fly up and down her shirt.By the time they had finished their shopping, it was time for James to get to work. Sirius and Lily accompanied him inside, affectedly oohing over his white apron with "Florean Fortescue's" on it in red Old English letters. He left them sitting behind the counter for a while, then came back with large cones for each of them. Sirius dug right into his cone, but Lily reached into her money-bag, pulling out a few Sickles. "Here."  
  
James waved that away. "You've got too many good manners. I'm not making you pay; you're my friend, for Pete's sake!"  
  
Lily tried offering it again, but he fastened her hand around it. "Stop being all noble. It's yours; you don't have to pay for it. The whole gift idea."  
  
Lily shrugged. "I don't mind. Thanks."  
  
During the course of the day, Lily became so bored (James wouldn't give up the Floo powder and she was too lazy to go anywhere) that she offered to help out behind the counter. The offer was gratefully accepted by Mr. Fortescue and his son, Florean. Jr., and within seconds, Lily was outfitted with Mrs. Fortescue's blindingly white apron, serving people iced drinks and frozen cakes. The boys had declined this job.  
  
She could see why, too, after a bit. People who didn't feel inclined to go to the counter and complain about melting ice could very well do that from their seats. And they did, too. Frequently. Lily had to restrain herself from giving a bald lady with a drool-filled mouth a sock in the jaw when that old lady mumbled about how scandalous it was, having barley-dressed minors waitressing. This was a lie. Lily was wearing long jeans and a shirt that covered her elbows, and she had only undone the top two buttons. It was untucked, true, but if a shirt comes down past your belt loops, Lily figured, it was quite all right.She was listening patiently to a gripe having to do with uncomfortable seats and how inappropriate tight pants were on waitresses (they were a size too big for her) when the door opened, letting out the cold air coming from the freezers. Lily sighed with relief—it was Severus and Lucius. She dropped a quick curtsy to the old git sitting half in and half out of the chair, took up her tray, and swept over to the new arrivals, smiling exhaustedly as she wiped a wet strand of hair out of her face.  
  
"Hallo. Can I get you anything?"  
  
Severus frowned. "Lily—you look really tired—and mad. What's up?"  
  
"And why are you working here," Lucius added.  
  
Lily shrugged. "Not working—more volunteering out of boredom. Can I get you anything," she repeated.  
  
Lucius shrugged. "Double iced frappucino."  
  
Lily nodded. "Coming right up. Severus?"  
  
He caught her eye but looked away nervously. "Oh—anything'll be fine. Chocolate maybe?"  
  
"Sure." Lily pulled out her writing pad. "Double, triple, over?"  
  
He sank into a seat. "Double's fine."  
  
"All right." Balancing the tray she was carrying, she made her way over to the counter, where Florean, Jr. was slicing a frozen cake. "Here." She ripped off the piece of paper, handed it to him. He glanced at it quickly. "We'll need some more chocolate. It's disappearing fast."  
  
"Mmm." Lily was handing a couple a sprinkle shaker. "It's hot in here."  
  
"Stick your head in the ice cream, then it gets better."  
  
Lily laughed. "I would, if my hair would stop shedding. Is that the frappucino?" He had just placed a dark brown something on the counter that had pieces of ice in it.  
  
"Yeah. And here's the chocolate. Say, Lily—" he added almost irreverently as she balanced both orders on the tray.  
  
"Hm?"  
  
"Say, would you like to have some ice cream together sometime?"  
  
Lily froze. She didn't really know how to respond to that. "Um—hang on. I'll be back." She wound herself through the tables till she reached her friends. "Here you go."  
  
Severus was searching Lily's face. "What's up? You don't look so happy."  
  
Lily frowned. "Florean just asked me to have some ice cream with him sometime, and I don't really know what to say."  
  
"Oh." Lucius nodded. "Do you want to, or not?"  
  
Wrinkling her nose, Lily pulled out the bill. "I know some girl—well, most, actually—think he's nice-looking, but he's a frightful git. He thinks too much of himself."  
  
"I take it that's a no?"  
  
"It is."  
  
Severus jumped in. "Say you're already busy that day."  
  
"Doing what?"  
  
"Well—" Severus stopped, floundered for words, but Lucius caught on.  
  
"Say you're spending that day with Severus. He wouldn't mind!"  
  
Lily chose to ignore the last sentence. "All right—I'll try that. Thanks, guys! And—that'll be six Sickles, twenty-four Knuts…"  
  
She didn't use that excuse with Florean, however; she just told him "No, but thank you." very firmly. There was one good thing about that episode however—when she related it to her friends, it effectively prevented her from ever having to waitress again. James especially didn't want her working there again—he seemed to have something particular against Florean. Lily didn't mind; it would keep her fist away from the jaws of old ladies. The next day, an owl came from Hogwarts; sort of bulky, and a bit hard. It gave off a metallic clang, anyhow, when it was dropped on the table. Lily slit it open.  
  
What fell out was something she really hadn't expected but that put a large grin on her face. A large, shiny star, with 'Prefect' engraved on it. She picked up the letter that went with it  
  
Dear Miss Evans,  
  
We are pleased to inform you that you have been selected as a Gryffindor fifth year prefect. This is a great honor, chosen by observation of your study habits, grades, and overall behavior. This is an added responsibility that will prepare you for positions of authority, therefore, we will be requiring you to monitor the years below you and to keep order as best you can. You will be permitted to remove points from Houses for substantial reasons, and when you arrive at Hogwarts, we shall give you the password for Professor Dumbledore's office.  
  
Sincerely,  
  
Professor Dumbledore, Headmaster, and Minerva McGonagall, Head of Gryffindor House  
  
Lily's father was so proud of her, he almost crushed her to pieces when he hugged her.  
  
"We're so proud of our girl! A prefect! Oh, you don't know how much this means to us!"  
  
Lily grinned hard herself, suppressing her grin in her father's shirt. "Daddy, really?"  
  
"Of course! Oh, you just can't tell how proud I am…"  
  
All too soon, it was the morning of September first, and they were scheduled to leave in thirty minutes. Lily was a bit frustrated; she couldn't find her Charms book. She'd checked everywhere; her trunk, under her bed, under the sofa in the living room and between the cushions, inside the kitchen cabinets...It annoyed her to think that she'd have to order a new one, and when ten-thirty rolled around, Lily was snapping at everyone in the house, including the neighborhood cat that wandered over for breakfast.  
  
Petunia wasn't all too happy with her mood. "Well, for gosh sakes, Lily, it's only a stupid book!"  
  
"Yeah, and I don't want to order another one. Now come on!"  
  
"Come on what?"  
  
"We've got to now now. Dad!"  
  
He rushed down from the attic. "Coming, dear. I'll get the car started." He dragged her trunk outside, with lots of groaning about the weight of it. Preoccupied and trying to remember where she'd left it last, Lily walked out the front door, running into a form outside it.  
  
"Ouch!"  
  
"Ow!"  
  
Lily stepped back, holding her forehead. "You have a really hard shoulder, you know that?"  
  
"And you a really hard head. What's wrong?"  
  
"Can't find my Charms book and we're late already. What're you here for?"  
  
James smiled sheepishly. "Well, first off, to return this—" he pulled her book out from behind his back—"and secondly, to ask for a ride. My folks can't take me."  
  
"And I suppose you thought we'd be glad to take you?" Lily snatched the volume from him, though she couldn't suppress a smile.  
  
"Well, that's about the gist of it." He was a bit unnerved now.  
  
Lily took his arm. 'You were right. "Come on—we'd better go. Dad's already hassled enough, and if we miss the train, it'll be worse."  
  
As it turned out, they didn't miss the train, though they came awfully close to doing so. The clock over the barrier between platforms nine and ten showed three minutes to eleven when they pushed their trolley through the barrier, and there were thirty seconds left by the time that they got their trunks stowed in a compartment and sank into seats, panting.  
  
"I do wish my mother hadn't bought such a heavy trunk!"  
  
"You're telling me! I had to carry one end of it. How much does it weigh—empty?"  
  
"I think somewhere around a hundred pounds…well, that's what it feels like, anyhow. Remus!"  
  
This last was to a form in the doorway. Remus Lupin had just pushed open the compartment door.  
  
"Hi, all. We were wondering where you were. Thought you might have missed the train."  
  
Just then, a large toot rang in their ears as the train pulled out of the station. Lily rolled her eyes. "We came awfully close to it, didn't we?"  
  
"Yeah. Thanks to Lily here."  
  
"Hey! If I hadn't been so late, you wouldn't have gotten a ride!"  
  
"True." James looked at the seats next to him. "Moony, have a seat, why don't you?"  
  
Lily frowned. "Moony?"  
  
Remus waved that aside. "It doesn't mean anything. It's just a stupid nickname, that's all."  
  
"Hmph." James frowned. "Remus, she knows about your unnatural habits. Anyway, she likes fanged, furry creatures. Don't you, Lil?"  
  
In answer, Lily hit James in the stomach, hard, and had fun laughing at him when he keeled onto the floor of the compartment, wheezing.  
  
"Remus, do you mind if they call you that?"  
  
Remus shrugged. "Why should I? I am a werewolf; why should I bother facing it?"  
  
"Good answer." Lily slid onto the floor of the compartment. "Exploding Snap, anyone?"  
  
Meanwhile, Sirius, Peter, Eva, and Amanda had joined them and they were in the middle of their third game when the compartment door slid open and Severus stood at the door. The four boys stood up, clenching their fists.  
  
"What do you want, Snape?" Sirius spat out the word 'Snape' as if it were poisonous.  
  
Severus shrugged. "I just want to talk to Lily, that's all."  
  
James grasped Lily's wrist firmly. "Don't you dare. He's probably jinx you as soon as you're out of the compartment.  
  
This was too much. Lily pinched his hand, hard.  
  
"Ow! What was that for!" "Don't try to restrain me. I'll do as I please. Severus, don't mind these donkeys. I'll be right out." She ignored dumbfounded stares from the boys, rolled her eyes in response to suppressed laughter on the girls' side, and stepped out of the compartment, shutting the door.  
  
"What? You looked as if it was something serious."  
  
He winced. "Sort of. Remember what you told me, at that Christmas party?"  
  
Lily squared her shoulders. "I thought you asked me to forget about it."  
  
"Well, yeah. But, still—you said that you didn't throw me over because of Potter."  
  
"I didn't."  
  
"Well, but you came into the Leaky Cauldron—er—holding hands with him, and then you're volunteering at the place where he works—"  
  
Lily had cut him off sharply by placing a hand over his mouth. "I was not holding Potter's hand. He grabbed mine so as not to waste Floo powder. He only had a bit."  
  
"Oh." Severus looked a bit relieved.  
  
"And the only reason I was volunteering there was because I was bored out of my mind."  
  
"Oh." Severus looked quite a bit happier now. "I was just wondering…"  
  
Lily smiled. "It's all right. Do you still need me or will I have to return to the controlling maniacs?"  
  
"You mean Potter and Black and them?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"That was all I wanted to ask. Thanks."  
  
"No problem. See you at Hogwarts!"  
  
"Yeah, see you," he echoed as she quietly pulled the compartment door open to face accusing faces from the boys.  
  
"Lily, how could you do that? That's betrayal!"  
  
"He's our greatest enemy! You know that!"  
  
"And you could have been killed out there! You know he knows more curses than anyone else does! He knew more when he came here than many seventh years!"  
  
"And you heard us tell you not to go!"  
  
"Lil. why'd you do that? He could have done anything!"  
  
Lily knew how to shut the boys up, and she did so as soon as she could get a word in edgewise.  
  
"I didn't know you cared."  
  
As soon as they had quieted down a bit, she launched into them.  
  
"In case you were wondering, Severus is your enemy, not mine. He's a very good friend, he's sweet, he's someone I can trust—more than I can say for any of you boys. I like him, all right, and you're not going to mess up our friendship by your stupid bickering. I'm not your property! You've got no right to tell me what to and what not to do. You don't own me!"  
  
With that, she turned on her heel, slid open the compartment door, and banged it loudly as she stormed down the corridor.  
  
She found Severus down the hall. As soon as he heard her footsteps, he turned. "You look mad. What happened?"  
  
"It turns out I'm their slave, and they can tell me who and how to talk to."  
  
"Ah." Severus nodded. "I'm sorry."  
  
"Don't be. Where's your compartment?"  
  
"In here." He gestured to a door to his left. "I'm just warning you; it's a mess."  
  
"I don't care." Lily followed him inside. "It won't kill me."  
  
"I wouldn't be too sure of that."  
  
"I would."  
  
As it turned out, the Tarantallegra that was put on her the moment she entered didn't kill her; it just made her legs start to jerk in a sort of quickstep. However, she spent quite a nice two hours in there before Eva and Amanda dragged her back into their compartment. "It's not as fun when you're not around."  
  
While back in her first compartment, she asked James something that had been bugging her for some time.  
  
"James?"  
  
"Hum?"  
  
Didn't you say something about the Quidditch World Cup last year?"  
  
"You don't know? What's wrong with you--oh." He nodded. "I forgot; you don't get the Daily Prophet. It's Italy against Japan, next week."  
  
"Why not over the summer? Isn't that usually when the World Cup's held?"  
  
"It's being held in Egypt. They've got a large sandstorm going on there, and we're not allowed to interfere with magic. We can't stop thunderstorms or anything like that, so the logical (or illogical) thought process is that we can't interfere with a sandstorm."  
  
"Oh." Lily sat back on her heels. "Is that so?"  
  
"Yeah…but students have permission to go see it on weekends. So we're going then; it starts next Friday night. By the way—" he turned to Remus—"remind me that Nigel owes me five Galleons."  
  
The rest of the talk excitedly turned to Quidditch; Lily had a feeling that they had been bursting to talk about it all day, but knew that she and Amanda would either fall asleep or leave. 


	37. Chapter XXXVII

They arrived at Hogwarts when it was pelting huge drops about the size of someone's thumbnail. They had to stay in the train for several minutes till it cleared up and the gamekeeper could retrieve all the boats from the middle and bottom of the lake (someone had cut the ropes that had held them to the bank).   
It gave them time to slip into their Hogwarts robes; Remus had also been made a prefect, as they found out when he pulled out his badge. No one expressed any surprise at all when they saw Lily's.   
When Lily stepped into the faintly damp, moth-ball smelling carriage, she was quite thankful she wasn't a first year. She didn't see how they could make it across that lake without drowning, especially since there was a nice giant squid that lived inside the stormy water.   
By the time the carriages reached Hogwarts, everyone was reasonably dry, though they had to soak their robes as they held them over their heads in order to get inside without looking as though they'd just taken a quick dip in the oh-so-calm lake with their clothes on. Damp and dripping, everyone filed into the Great Hall, ready to welcome the first years, who filed in and stuck together in a large clump.   
Professor McGonagall carried the Sorting Hat up to the three-legged stool that sat on a stage, and immediately, the hat opened its brim and lost it, with a plop. The brim, that is. It was simply a pointy thing with a patched, round bit of cloth draped around the stool. Everyone tried not to roar with laughter, but it was too funny not to.   
Professor Dumbledore finally got the noise down to a semblance of quiet, flicking his wand and replacing the brim. Then, for the second time, the hat opened its 'mouth' and began to sing amid suppressed giggles.  
  
_In days when I was new and young   
This school was bright and clean.   
And the Four Heads of Houses swung   
Small wizards into streams.   
  
Gryffindor's stream ran sunset red;   
And into it he threw   
The bravest from their safe, warm beds   
And the daring from their pew.   
  
The trickle of Hufflepuff widened large   
Flowing with liquid gold.   
And in the river rode a barge   
Filled with a loyal, trusty mould.   
  
Ravenclaw's torrent took to the sea   
Azure and blue and bronze   
The smartest, the brightest one could see   
For miles all around.   
  
The silver watercourse among the rocks   
Tinted with streaks of green   
Took to Slytherin the smartest locks   
The sneakiest in between._

_And when they were quite old and gone   
I was left instead   
To do my best for wizards at dawn   
Of their new life's stead.   
  
So try me on and do not shake;   
Your insides are still there.   
And I have yet made no mistake   
Of this, your life's first scare.  
  
_The Great Hall burst into applause. Lily turned to Sirius.   
"It did pretty well, even if that brim did fall off!"   
"It's a talented hat."   
Lily laughed. "Yes!"   
They were terribly hungry; the lady with the cart on the train had run out of food quite early, and everyone was more than ready for dinner. As Dumbledore stood up at the teacher's table, several groans could be heard throughout the Hall.   
"I trust you have all had an eventful summer; time for all that nice knowledge to seep out of your heads. I know you are all anxious to eat, but before you do so, I would like to say a few words.   
"First, all of you who are excited about the Quidditch World Cup, we are allowing you to leave Hogwarts on weekends with permission from your parents. We shall be transporting you there and directing you to the group you shall be with. Needless to say, if the Cup lasts into the week, you shall be back at school." The Great Hall groaned even more loudly. "Another thing, before I shall allow you to nourish yourselves. You are, as usual, not allowed inside the Forbidden Forest, and no one is to visit Hogsmeade without a signed form or when a visit is not announced." Lily saw Sirius and James turn their heads to look at each other as Peter sat in his seat, looking smug.   
"We shall be asking you, as usual, to pay strict attention to out prefects and Head Boy and Girl." James stole a glance down the table to where Lily was sitting, and was surprised to find that she hadn't displayed her prefect badge prominently, and that she wasn't looking half as smug as Peter was. Her head was sort of down, and it looked like she had a faint sunburn.  
The Great Hall burst into applause. Lily turned to Sirius.   
"It did pretty well, even if that brim did fall off!"   
"It's a talented hat."   
Lily laughed. "Yes!"   
They were terribly hungry; the lady with the cart on the train had run out of food quite early, and everyone was more than ready for dinner. As Dumbledore stood up at the teacher's table, several groans could be heard throughout the Hall.   
"I trust you have all had an eventful summer; time for all that nice knowledge to seep out of your heads. I know you are all anxious to eat, but before you do so, I would like to say a few words.   
"First, all of you who are excited about the Quidditch World Cup, we are allowing you to leave Hogwarts on weekends with permission from your parents. We shall be transporting you there and directing you to the group you shall be with. Needless to say, if the Cup lasts into the week, you shall be back at school." The Great Hall groaned even more loudly. "Another thing, before I shall allow you to nourish yourselves. You are, as usual, not allowed inside the Forbidden Forest, and no one is to visit Hogsmeade without a signed form or when a visit is not announced." Lily saw Sirius and James turn their heads to look at each other as Peter sat in his seat, looking smug.   
"We shall be asking you, as usual, to pay strict attention to out prefects and Head Boy and Girl." James stole a glance down the table to where Lily was sitting, and was surprised to find that she hadn't displayed her prefect badge prominently, and that she wasn't looking half as smug as Peter was. Her head was sort of down, and it looked like she had a faint sunburn.  
"I'll take your word for it."   
Lily motioned for him to shut up as Dumbledore began to speak again.   
"And as that is all I can say, let us begin!" He clapped his hands once, and the golden plates in front of them filled with the usual delicious food. But, tired as everyone was and drenched as more than everyone was, no one really enjoyed the feast as much as they would have normally. When Dumbledore finally let them leave the Great Hall, the first moves of everyone were towards the common room fire. Lily was pushed in front of the mass of Gryfffindors rushing towards their Tower, and only a few feet away from the portrait hole did she remember that prefects gave the students the password into the Tower.   
Her mind searched frantically for something, and finally, in a bit of drenched and dazed desperation, she hit on the first thing that came to mind; something out of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.   
"Greek fire."  
The Gryffindors, satisfied with their password, pushed the Fat Lady open and piled into the common room. Whether it was because they were wetter and colder than usual or that the fire was larger and higher than it usually was, it definitely seemed warmer. However, the space in front of it could only be occupied by so many people, so about a fourth of the Gryffindors had to go upstairs to the bathrooms so as to take hot showers. Lily did so, mainly because she was more than ready for bed, which she got into at about eleven; the feast had lasted so long. She said a quick hello to Diana, Elspeth, and Abigail before her head hit the pillow and she fell asleep. It was debatable if she was asleep before her hair touched the pillow or after, though if anyone had watched, they would be inclined to say the former.

Next morning, everyone woke up a bit later than usual. They got dressed, yawning, and went down to breakfast, where Professor McGonagall was busy handing out schedules.   
Lily slid into a seat next to Remus and Eva. "Hullo."   
"Hallo, Miss Prefect." Eva was in a good mood. "Tired."   
"Very. What's for breakfast?"   
"The usual. Have some sausages?"   
"Sure; why not." Lily watched lazily as Eva piled her plate.   
Professor McGonagall went around handing out schedules, and Lily grabbed hers as it went flying onto her milk jug. "Remus, schedules!"   
"Um." His mouth was full and he had to swallow twice before it became empty. "I can see. What do we have first?"   
"Potions. With the Slytherins."   
"Wow." Remus rolled his eyes. "What a great way to start our day."   
"It won't kill you. Really; it won't. Come on—they're not really all that bad."   
"To you, maybe."   
"That's because I was nice to them. Come on, get rid of that stupid prejudice. Remember, they could say worse about you if they knew."   
"Oh, right." Remus picked up his own schedule. "I've got Transfiguration second…how about you?"   
James plopped into a chair across from Remus, next to Lily. "Anatomy."   
"And how would you know that?"  
"I'm in her class. Come on, Rem, it's almost time for—POTIONS!?" His voice echoed all over the Great Hall, and everyone turned to stare. James waved to everyone, a bit sheepishly, because Professor Cauldwell was seated at the teacher's table.   
"Hi, all?"   
They laughed quietly, turning back to their breakfast. Soon, however, it was time for them to go to class, and they all filed out of the Great Hall quickly, grabbing book bags as they raced to respective classrooms.  
Professor Cauldwell was more animated than usual; this time he actually had notes, and he gave a long lecture on the different potions that could be used to ward off Dark creatures. Lily had a roll of parchment of jotted notes on how to use them and what they were made of and how long they were to simmer. It was interesting, for once, and they had to research one of two potions he gave them; they would be making them on Wednesday.   
Anatomy was next. Professor Maar had become even more demanding over the summer, and he told them that they would be studying unicorns before Christmas holidays and that he would be bringing a specimen into class. Everyone was excited and couldn't wait, but their excitement was crushed when he told them that they had two rolls of parchment on unicorns due Friday.Lily wasn't the only one delighted to find that they didn't have Divination that day. It had been moved to right before lunch on Tuesday, which was wonderful, since it didn't get so hot in the morning. They had Herbology instead; they were planting a grove of small birch dryads near the Forbidden Forest.   
Lily and her friends stayed up late that night in the common room, talking about the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Lily would have her on Wednesday, and she could hardly wait.   
Lily yawned her way through Divination next morning. Sirius and James were absent, and Professor Trelawney was teaching them about the different ways to use crystals when stargazing. It made no sense whatsoever, and she slid into her seat at lunch with an air that suggested that she wanted to go to sleep.   
Sirius handed her a glass of pumpkin juice. "Tired?"   
"Aren't you?"   
"Nope. We skipped."   
"I noticed."   
He shrugged. "Well, we've got a good excuse."   
She looked skeptical. "I see."   
"We do! Well, that is, we will once we think up one."   
"I see."  
They trooped into History of Magic at the end of the day, not at all looking forward to this. They were his first class after lunch, and he usually took a nap during lunchtime. And this year, he had an extra hour and a half to sleep, so when they walked inside it was natural for them to see an empty classroom. It was only when he didn't show up for fifteen minutes that they began to get edgy.   
"D'you think he's all right?"   
"Of course! The old git just overslept."   
"Well, something's wrong!"   
"Go get him, why don't you?"   
"I'm just worried about our teacher! Stop it!"   
"Why worry?"   
'...Yeah; he never teaches anyway; what's the point?"   
"There isn't one. Binns never has one; at least that I can discern."  
"No, but something could be seriously wrong!"   
"All right then, Miss Prefect, go see what's wrong while our other prefect supervises us unruly children."   
"James! Don't call me that!"   
"Touchy, are we?"   
"Come on, Lily, give it a break!"   
"Lily, we're perfectly fine without him; we can even do the same thing we do when he's here."   
"What's that?"   
"Go to sleep."   
"Yeah, Lily, go to sleep."   
"But something could be seriously wrong!"   
"So what? Lily, you can be one of the most annoying people on earth, do you know that?"   
"But if something happened…"

Remus finally lost it, too. "Good God, Lily, will you shut up? You're the only one in here that cares or pretends to like our teachers—go find him then! And when you catch him coming out of some bathroom, I reserve the right to say 'I told you so.'"   
"All right then!" Lily was angry now. She slid her chair back and walked in the direction of Binns' office; she'd been there once before to discuss a paper. It was around several winding stairways and corners; when she finally got to it, she wouldn't have been surprised at all to find the door locked. It was open, however; ajar, even, and she pushed it open easily.  
Professor Binns was dozing in a large armchair in front of a blazing fire. Lily walked towards him, coughing deliberately and loudly. When he didn't wake up, she tapped him on the shoulder.   
"Er—Professor Binns?"   
No answer.   
"Professor?"   
No answer.   
She shook his shoulder.   
No response.   
Harder.   
No response.   
"ProfessShe touched him again, and the coldness flooded her arm again. She shook him again, and this time his head dropped to one side, leaving a pearly replica of his head drooping on his chest. Lily's breath started to come faster and shorter.   
"Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my…PROFESSOR!"   
She heard running footsteps in the hall, and James and Sirius were at the door. "Lil! What's up?"   
With a shaking hand, Lily pointed to the transparent second head of their teacher. The boys moved into the room.


	38. Chapter XXXVIII

_Geez__, this is really depressing…about 35 chapters and only 14 reviews…I feel really bad now…please, if you have any kind of human in you, review this!  Just one would make me feel so much better!  Please!  Think of the joy added to the human heart when a simple little purple/gray/blue/whatever button is pressed!!_

"Geez, what do you think happened?"   
"How old was that guy?"   
"I wonder how long it takes bodies to rot."   
"I wonder how long he's been dead!"   
"You think he's really dead?"   
"He's a ghost, idiot!"   
"No, I mean is his ghost dead?"   
"Can ghosts die?"   
"Get Dumbledore."   
"Yes. James, go with her. I'll try to wake him up."  
James and Lily broke into a run as they headed for Dumbledore's office. At the statue of the disturbingly ugly goblin, they stopped. Lily stemmed her fists in her sides.or Binns!"   
His hand dropped from his robes.   
"PROFESSOR!"   
This time, as she shook his shoulder violently, her hand felt cold, as if she had just plunged it in a bowl of ice-cold water. Something started to dawn on her.   
"Erm—Professor?" Meekly, this time.  
"How are we going to get in? I don't know the password."   
James gave his mischievous smile. "I do."   
"How?"   
"Remember when I told you I had a good excuse? I got to file papers in his office."   
Lily scowled. "You little—anyway. Go ahead."   
"All right. Butterbeer."   
The goblin jumped aside as the two moved in the doorway, jogged up the winding stairs, and knocked loudly on the door, which swung open to reveal Dumbledore sitting at his desk, writing a letter. He looked up as they ran in, breathless and panting.   
"Professor—we were in history of Magic—"   
"Professor Binns didn't come, so I went to go check on him—"   
"She went inside his office and found his body—"   
"Headmaster, Professor Binns' dead!"   
There was complete silence in the room after Lily came out with that statement, but after a good five seconds, Professor Dumbledore rose from his chair, beard and robes swaying. He left his office at such a speed that Lily and James had to run again to keep up. They rounded several corners and finally came to Professor Binns' office. The door was closed and locked.   
Alohomora was a useful charm, and they opened the door easily. But the only thing they found was a blazing fire and a body in an armchair. Professor Dumbledore touched the form. It was still warm.   
He straightened up. "James, please go fetch Professor McGonagall. Lily, come with me."   
They left the room, James turning one way, Dumbledore and Lily another. They came to the classroom Lily had left a few minutes ago, and Lily was shocked to hear a familiar droning sound coming from the room. Dumbledore pushed the door open, revealing the entire class staring at their teacher in wonder, who apparently had risen from his armchair, walked into the classroom, picked up his notes, and started to read.  
Dumbledore and Lily stopped at the door, a bit stunned. Collecting herself, Lily noted that Dumbledore was pushing her into the classroom, so she slid into her seat quietly. Professor Binns didn't even look up.   
That evening, at dinner, everyone at Hogwarts knew about Professor Binns. They were all pointing and whispering at Lily, Sirius, and James, who were huddled in a knot, talking about that afternoon. It was Sirius' turn.   
"Ok, so you two leave me, right? I yelled in his ear again, just for good measure, and he wakes up and tells me to get back to class! I tell you, that scared me! So I bolted and got into the classroom just as he was entering it through the blackboard. I wasn't the only scared one!"   
"I can imagine."   
"Ok, James, it's your turn now." James leaned closer. "I went to McGonagall's classroom to get her after Dumbledore told me to fetch her, and I walked in, but when I tried saying something, her class was too loud, so I had to yell, "PROFESSOR BINNS IS DEAD!" It shut them up quick as anything, and then McGonagall just stared at me, and when I didn't start to laugh, she swept out and banged the door loud. Next thing I knew, I was standing in front of his classroom and he was teaching, so McGonagall almost gave me detention, but then she saw him, and he was all ghostly and stuff, and she gave this really odd gasp, told me to get to class, and raced down to his office."   
Lily and Sirius had a good, refreshing laugh as they helped themselves to the last bits of chocolate cake.   
That night in the common room, hardly anyone was in bed. They were all discussing Binns' death, and for once, Serena had swallowed her anger and was as curious as everyone else. It was around two when the common room was halfway emptied.  
The next morning, Lily woke up, exited about something she couldn't quite put her finger on. Then she knew. Defense Against the Dark Arts was their first class, and the first encounter she'd ever have with a dryad. She dressed hurriedly and was downstairs at breakfast before anyone else was, skimming through her new Defense Against the Dark Arts book for the sixth time. By the time Sirius and Eva took seats on either side of her, she was already halfway through.   
"Good Lord, Lily, are you that obsessed with making a three hundred in that class? Give it a break!"   
"I don't want to make a fool out of myself, and besides, this is interesting. Did you know that dryads were over fifteen feet tall originally, and that their hair type changes with every season?"   
Sirius nodded. "I knew the last part. Dorvan has leaf-type things in her hair."   
"Oh, really?" Lily peered at the teacher's table. "I didn't notice that!"   
Eva laughed. "What kind of tree do you think she is?"   
"I don't know. I'm about to find out." Lily flipped a page, running her finger down the indents.   
"Either an oak, a beech, a chestnut, or a pine. I'm inclined to cut the oak out, though, because they're mostly male."   
James pointed at the page. "She's also half-human, and look here—" His finger traveled to a picture of a twig—"This isn't what her fingers look like. They're more sturdy."   
Lily nodded. "So she isn't half-beech or oak."   
"Right. I'd say she's a pine, as a matter of fact."   
Lily twisted in her seat so she could stare at him. "Why that?"   
James pointed at the teacher's table. "Look. She's really stately; she's got long, dark hair—sorta needly. Can't you see that?"   
Lily nodded, slowly. "Now I can." She could, too. The green robes of the welcoming feast had been changed to solid black, with a sort of shimmery shine to them. She couldn't think of how she had missed the resemblance to the pine tree Lily's mother had planted in her backyard.  
The bell rang, and everyone, especially the Gryffindor fifth years, rushed to class. They were all in their seats by the time the bell rang, and when Professor Dorvan drifted in and shut the door softly, even James and Sirius had, for once, shut their mouths. With a sort of husky, deep, windy, rustling voice, their teacher began to speak as she seated herself on the edge of her desk. Just now Lily realized how tall she was; even sitting down, one could see her height. Liquid black eyes gleamed with an excitement on either side of an average nose; a practical mouth with a hint of a smile to it fastened her cheeks together. Her hair was pulled into a loose side ponytail to the side, and several branches of hair fell into her face and covered her ears.   
"I will be your Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher this year; hopefully for several years, if I fulfill my duty. I am not your average professor; I was born in the Forbidden Forest—" here Lily caught James and Sirius exchange delighted glances—"and know the habits and fears of almost every creature there. I will not be requiring you to do much bookwork; I shall be teaching you many practical things." She cleared her throat. "Please get out your wands."   
They did so, still quietly. Her voice, soft yet hard, low yet overpowering, had the ability to keep a class quiet without an effort on her part.   
"I suppose you all know I am a half-dryad. And if you know that, I assume you also know that, when angered, dryads can be the most dangerous creature this Earth can hold." She went on to explain the scientific reasons behind the unnatural madness dryads were capable of, the reasons why they could not easily be overcome, and the spell that could hold an enraged dryad at bay.  
"I shall be asking you to test this on me. Please, now—wands out, and repeat after me." They obeyed. "Flueroticis Dranyada Muerotnics Pourtevn."   
They stared at her; she had pronounced these words with a mixture of a German, French, and Russian accent, which seemed almost impossible for them to imitate. She repeated her words, slowly this time.   
"Flueroticis Dranyada Muerotnics Pourtyen."   
This time the class responded. "Flueroticis Dranyada Muerotnics Pourtyen."   
"Excellent." She clapped her hands lightly, and her sleeves fell from her arms, exposing bark-like skin. "Someone, now, come up here. I just want you to concentrate on what you're saying." Her eyes roved over the crowd. "Miss Evans, come here, please?"   
Lily stepped forward, sweaty palms grasping her wand. As forewarned, Professor Dorvan's eyes slitted in anger, her hands raised in branch-like clawing motions, and as she dashed for Lily, the class all gave a stifled gasp.   
Lily held her wand up, not shaking, though she dearly wanted to. As if on impulse, without any nudging from her brain, the words broke forth from her throat.   
"flueroticis Dranyada Muerotnics Pourtyen!"   
Immediately, the half-dryad was frozen in position; she stopped as something began curling about her feet. The class drew back as a smoky twirls gathered around their teacher's feet, then, transforming quickly to brambles, she was entwined in vines and tangles. It lasted for a minutes; then it dissolved. Lily had let her wand fall.  
Professor Dorvan straightened up, clapping lightly. "Excellent! Wonderful! Anyone else care to try?"   
With an effort, Lily pulled her joints into working positions. "I'll pass."   
The dryad laughed woodily as she pulled Peter up to the front. "Come on, dear, your turn!"   
Peter went a sort of nervous green. "I don't have a very good foreign accent."   
Lily laughed, too. Only hers didn't sound as if she were locked in a thicket; it had more scorn to it. "Well, you can pronounce Latin stuff, can't you?"

"No."   
"Oh, come on! What language do you think Petrifocus Totalus is?"   
"Uhh…jibber?"   
"Latin, you dope. Come on."   
"All right." He rolled up his sleeves and brandished his wand as Lily deftly stepped out of the way and Professor Dorvan rushed at him.  
It all would have gone well, Lily later reflected, if Peter hadn't insisted on standing there, frozen in the most idiotic position you could ever not wish to be seen in. The summary of it was that he got attacked by an enraged tree that almost strangled him with its branches before Sirius, James, and Lily jumped for their wands. Professor Dorvan was thrown off, and as she hung onto her desk, shaking a bit, she wasted no time in giving Peter detention.   
"When I tell you to curse me, do it! I can't control myself when I get angry; I told you that! No dryad can! You could have been killed! Two weeks' detention, Mr. Pettigrew!" James, Sirius, and Lily were slinking into their seats, and the rest of the class was trying to hide behind opened books. "Don't ever disobey me again! Who knows what could happen if you ever land in the Forbidden Forest and don't know this spell—I could lose my job!"   
The class tried hard not to laugh at this, but it couldn't be helped. The bell rang, leaving everyone trooping off to second period in a much more comfortable mood than they had been earlier. Though Divination was next, they managed to get through it without receiving any major injuries; i.e.: falling off of their chairs and cracking their skulls open on the table because of intense drowsiness.   
  
That weekend, the whole common room was practically deserted except for Lily, Amanda, and several other Muggle-borns that hadn't the slightest interest whatsoever in Quidditch. They had settled themselves on the rug in front of the fire, taking a dreary sort of pleasure in the empty common room, which, for once, was free of noisy explosions and sparks but full of the whiplash sound of rain lashing the windowpanes. The cheerful chatter of the girls, telling each other about their summers and their first days back, was almost drowning it out, but not quite, which was nice, for the noise of the rain that couldn't come in was a satisfying sound; it made them feel rather safe and warm. Which they were, as a matter of fact.   
Amanda dealt the Exploding Snap cards for the fifth time, yawning a bit. "Lily?"   
"Hum?"   
"Don't you wish we could have gone?"   
"Nope." Lily shook her head. "Quidditch is all right, but it isn't my dream sport."   
"I know that, Miss Fencer."   
"You should. WATCH OUT!"  
The warning came too late. A faceful of smoke and singeing sparks had hit Amanda full in the face.   
"Oh, wonderful. Isn't this great?"   
Lily shrugged. "Go wash your face. I'll get Minky to get us some hot chocolate."   
"No coffee?"   
"You obviously haven't asked Minky to bring up coffee yet, have you?"   
"No; why?"   
Lily scrunched up her voice in a high and crinkly imitation of the small house-elf. "Miss is too, too kind to wish Minky to do a service for miss, but Minky has heard from several reliable sources that coffee is bad for miss! Will stunt miss' growth and stain miss' teeth!"   
Amanda laughed, but Lily only shrugged again. "I swear; that's her voice. She will go on for hours like that."   
That afternoon, Amanda was in her dormitory, trying to rest; the other Gryffindors were either sleeping, wandering aimlessly around Hogwarts, or playing chess in the common room. Lily was in her dormitory, toying with the idea of the Alendoren Cove.   
She hadn't been there in ages, she told herself, and she missed Svordsja and Litharelen, and of course Tom. It was perfect, just perfect…but was this even allowed at Hogwarts? This continual vanishing and and and….Sighing loudly, Lily kicked her covers aside and opened her jewelry box, pulling out the flashing gold and midnight blue necklace. She fastened the chain around her neck, grasped the pendant in her left hand, and hit it against the bureau.  
With a small thump, Lily landed on all fours in the familiar white, glittering sand of the Alendoren Cove. She shook the sand and hair out of her ears—something was wrong. Then she knew.   
The Alendoren Cove was usually the most peaceful place she had ever encountered, with the sun glittering on the waves and a lazy elf-nymph usually flopping onto a stone, or moonlight bathing the beach in a silver glow; there was hardly any noise. But now—now—now—


	39. Chapter XXXIX

The cracks around her were splitting the air. Streams of light were disfiguring the sky, unnaturally dark at this hour. Yells and screams echoing through the whirling sands were cutting into her head, and it was only when a large something flew just over her head and exploded right behind her that she thought she'd better get under cover.  
  
   From the cliff she'd dashed behind, she had a view of everything that was going on. It confirmed her worst suspicions. It was nothing more or less than a battle.  
  
   Lily recognized a small army fighting desperately, which included Tom, Macnair, Avery, Nott, and several others she'd seen in the cave with Tom several times. And against them an army of wizards in dark green robes were fighting, blasting, injuring, killing. And there—Lily saw a tall silvery figure dash into view. Litharelen. Mounted on Svordsja and armed with her wand, she managed effectively to trample several while cursing others. And Svordsja, Lily saw, was a wonderful ally in battle. It was the most painful thing anyone could imagine to get speared on her horns, and about ten had found that out already. It was easy to see now that Litharelen was an expert horsewoman. Though Svordsja reared, trampled, galloped, and jumped too many times to count, Litharelen never slipped an inch from the pentacorn's back. It was amazing, Lily thought. All around Litharelen and Svordsja, a mass of dark green and black were clashing, and this streak of silver was fearlessly fighting and rearing. Lily was moving forward slowly, out of the safety of the cliff. She was closer to the battle now; once she flinched as a streak of fire landed on the ground next to her crouching figure.  
  
   Keeping her eyes on her friends, Lily watched. It was breathtaking to see the utter courage and casualness Litharelen displayed as she threw four opponents to the ground, stunned, and then was ready to take on five more.  
  
   Lily smiled. "Note to self. Never anger an elf-nymph."  
  
   Or a pentacorn. Someone had hit Svordsja in the flank with a spell that left a large gash along her side, and, with a terrible scream that cleft the dusty air into millions of tiny pieces, she fell over, pinning Litharelen underneath her. The Ministry lost no time.  
  
   By the time Tom had realized what had happened and had fought his way over to Litharelen's side, her skull had a deep gash in it and her arm was broken; her chest was slowly developing a large bruise. With panic in his eyes, he took his stance right over Litharelen, enraged and infuriated, daring every Ministry wizard to come at him. Which they did.  
  
   Lily could see that the Ministry was well organized; they had swept most of Tom's followers to his left and held them there, fighting, while Tom was being slowly encircled by at least thirty wizards in dark green. And as a cut across Tom's chest started to bleed profusely, they started attacking even more vigorously.  
  
   Without consulting her common sense, she slipped to the body of a fallen Ministry member and pulled his wand out from his grasp. With a deep breath, she moved forward into the circle of death, trying desperately to push aside the fact that she was only a fourteen-year-old child.  
  
   The Ministry was puzzled, not to say astonished, when from one area in the circle their men started to fall, lying rigidly on the ground with only their eyes moving. In an instant, before they had time to regroup, Lily had slid through and had knelt over Litharelen, who was weakly trying to get up. Tom whirled at Lily's light touch on his sleeve. For that instant, he forgot how young and inexperienced she was; all he saw was a faithful ally.  
  
   "Lily! Thank God! Listen, you've got to help me!"  
  
   Lily shook her hair back. "That's what I came to do."  
  
   Tom shot a few bolts of blue light towards three attackers, who immediately ceased to be attackers. Then, with a large effort, he managed to get Svordsja to her feet.  
  
   "You've got to get Lith out of here."  
  
   Lily had already slipped cool hands under the elf-nymph's body. "Where to?"  
  
   Litharelen groaned slightly as Tom placed her on top of the pentacorn's back. "There's a mountain range over there. Go to the nearest valley you can find, hidden, if possible, from anyone over here, and set her off."  
  
   Lily swung her foot over Svordsja's back, and next instant, she was mounted, and gave a curt nod.  
  
   "See you, then." Without waiting for a response from him, she turned Svordsja around, and, digging her heels viciously into the pentacorn's side, managed to gallop through the re-forming ring of Ministry wizards. She was heading, without further ado, for the blueish-gray mountain range in the distance.  
  
   Back on the sand, surrounded by his enemies, Tom smiled mockingly.  
  
   "Well then, who's next?"  
  
   Lily thundered over the plains, dodging overhanging tree branches and trying her best to keep her seat while ripping large parts of her black Hogwarts robes to pieces, trying to bind up the pentacorn's wound, and by the time they reached the mountains, it had stopped bleeding and leaving a trail. Keen eyes searched for a safe place to hide, and within seconds, Lily had swerved to a stop underneath an overhanging cliff. Gently, she unloaded Litharelen and pulled her onto a somewhat mossy piece of earth.  
  
   Svordsja was fine; at least for the moment. There was a pool on the end of the cave, and she slowly dragged herself over to it. Dusty, wounded, and tired, the pentacorn let her head fall onto her front legs as she sank to the ground.  
  
   Frowning, Lily bent over the hardly breathing figure, once the tall, stately, and somewhat scornful elf-nymph. The broken arm was somewhat easier to set to temporary rights; there were some branches in a corner. Lily managed to weave a makeshift sling out of some long plants and what was left of her robes, bending the arm and putting it out of the way, for the moment. There was nothing she could do for the bruise on the elf- nymph's ribs; all she could do was tear a piece of black cloth away from the sling and soak it in the cool water, bathing the bruise with it. Then she turned to the gash on Litharelen's skull.  
  
   It was terrible to look at. Dark red blood had stained her hair and matted the silver threads to her head, besides covering most of her left side. Lily gently washed away the blood; then, she took a closer look at the cut.  
  
   At least three inches long, it ran from close to her eye to right below her ear. Half an inch wide, it gaped open horribly, and every so often, Litharelen would convulse in a spasm of pain. Lily sat back on her heels.  
  
She had looked at the diagram of the elf-nymph in the back of her new Anatomy book, and she was pretty certain that she knew at least the basics. There was a small vein that ran just along that line where Litharelen had been cut, and Lily only hoped to goodness it had not been severed. If it had, Litharelen had no hope; not even magic could heal that wound.  
  
   Lily unhooked her necklace and removed the stone, tucking it far into a pocket. The claws of the pendant weren't ideal for this purpose, but they were adequate. Lily was putting the delicate vein back into place when Tom appeared at the entrance of their shelter.  
  
   "Lily! Is she all right?"  
  
   "Don't bother me."  
  
   "Fine, fine. You know what you're doing?"  
  
   "Would you?"  
  
   "Absolutely not." Tom shook his head. "Never studied that."  
  
   "Hrmph." Lily frowned. "I'll be doing this solo, then. Keep watch at the door, and for God's sake hand me that extra pair of robes you're wearing. And your knife."  
  
   Tom complied, shooting a worried glance at Litharelen. As soon as he had vanished, however, Lily set to work frenziedly, cutting away chunks of the matted silver hair that was in danger of getting into the wound.  
  
   Then the more delicate work began; stitching up the gash with a makeshift needle. Lily made an note to herself never to go around without a needle in her pocket; using a homemade bone needle was terribly inconvenient.  
  
   It was dusky outside before Lily called Tom back in. She had meanwhile sent a jet of blue fire onto kindling leaves, and it was warmer inside, which was good, as the chilly night air started to set in. Tom entered, bending so as not to hit his head on rocks protruding from the ceiling. He made his silent way over to Litharelen, who was breathing more calmly now, and not so roughly.  
  
   "Is she all right?"  
  
   Lily nodded, though it was useless; he couldn't see her. "She'll be all right. It isn't too serious—well, it isn't now."  
  
   Tom nodded distractedly, letting out a large sigh of relief. He knelt down next to the motionless form on the bed, kissing her brow lightly, then taking her hand in his and sitting down next to her, his forehead pressed against her cold palm.  
  
   Quietly, Lily withdrew, replaced the stone in the golden claws, and returned to Hogwarts, slamming into the bed with a breath-taking thump. 


	40. An engagement and a discovered secret

She lay there, stunned, for a few minutes, and then sat up, holding her head between her two palms, shaken and rather terrified.  It had just sunk in that she had been in the middle of a battle—that she had been _helping the same person that had lied to her, and that she also had performed a complicated bit of surgery, and the patient was still alive.  Exhausted, Lily closed her eyes as she sank onto her pillow, murmuring a few words before she fell asleep._

"Thank the Lord for that Anatomy class."

The next day, she slept all through breakfast and lunch, and only left her bed and her book to change the torn and ripped black school robes for some clean, non-bedraggled ones and to take a long, cold bath in the prefect's bathroom, which she liked much better, as not that many people used it.  But for safety's sake, she had donned her bathing suit.

That evening, Lily had just stepped out of the bathtub and into had nightgown when the rest of the school came back from the Quidditch game.  Although she wasn't the greatest admirer of that game, she nevertheless besieged the spectators with questions.  Joining Amanda in front of the fire, where she'd cornered James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter, they soon got all they wanted to hear and more.

James was one of the most excited.  "You should have seen the third Wronski Feint!  Whistler, that Italian Seeker, got _three inches over the ground before he swerved back up!  I could never have done that!"_

Sirius slapped him on the shoulder.  "Of course not; he's been playing Quidditch for ages.  I liked the Japanese mascots, though."

Remus, Eva, and James all burst into snorts of laughter.  Loud snorts.  They lasted for a good five minutes, and then they only stopped because Lily and Amanda were tugging at their robes, asking what on earth was so funny.

James snorted an extra time for good measure.  "They brought veelas.  Except, of course, they were the Japanese kinds, not the Bulgarian, and they were wearing all sorts of ceremonial costumes and things.  Sirius here jumped off the Top Box, right down onto the field."  That set them off again.

When everyone had sufficiently calmed down, Lily asked something no one had answered yet.

"So, who won?"

They all stared at her.  "You mean we didn't tell you?  They're still at it.  Score was one hundred to three fifty when we left."

"Oh."  Lily's surprise must have been evident.  "Isn't there a limit as to how long these things can last?"

"Nope."  James shook his head.  "Not as long as the Snitch isn't caught.  I hope this one breaks the record!"

"Oh, that'd be neat!"  Remus had joined in.  

James immediately turned to him.  "Remus, old friend, ten Galleons on three months?"

"You're on!"

That night, Lily was tossing and turning restlessly.  She'd woken up so late that morning that she wasn't tired at all, and finally she swung her feet out of bed, flung her cloak around her shoulders (it was a bit cold, for once), picked up The Grapes of Wrath, and flitted down to the common room.  But when she was coming down the shadowy dormitory corridor, she heard muffled footsteps and immediately shrank back into the cold marble walls.  

"Get off!  You're pushing _again!"_

"I'm sorry!"

"You'd better be!  I'm getting sick of this!  And you're getting out once we're in the library."

"Why?"  This last remark was one of the most aggravating whines one could ever hope to avoid, and therefore, Lily had no doubt it came from Peter Pettigrew.

"Because it's just a _bit hard to look for a book with four people under a cloak."_

"James, will you shut up?"

"Don't tell me he's not annoying you!"

"He is, but don't kick up that much of a fuss over it!"

"Fine then."

"Fine!" 

"Fine!"

Remus' tired voice seeped into the sagging cushions of the common room furniture.  "Will both of you just shut up?"

Lily could imagine the somewhat shamefaced expressions on James' and Sirius' faces.  "All right, Moony, old pal."

"Moony?"  Remus was faintly surprised.

"Yeah.  You're Moony now.  Come on; we've got to get down there."  

They suited the action to the word; the portrait creaked noisily as they opened it and swished off.  Losing no time, Lily followed, her book lying forgotten on a table.

They pulled off the cloak once they were in the library, making their silent way for Madam Pince's office.  James pulled out his wand.

"Alohomora!"

Something inside the door clicked, but it didn't swing open.  Exasperated, James pulled something from his pocket, pushed it inside the lock, and twisted it a few times.  When he pulled the door open, they all turned towards each other and grinned.

"Who knows, Pince could be more related to Muggles than we guessed!"

"Why couldn't we open it with magic, but you could with a Muggle method?"

James shrugged.  "Search me.  Come on; let's go!"  They vanished inside the office, and soon they emerged, Sirius holding a book in his hands.

"Look!  _The Complete Guide to Animagi Transformations!"_

Remus grinned.  "Wonderful job, old buddy, old pal.  Come on; let's get out of here."

"Why so?"  James had a mischievous grin on his face.  "Just think of the stuff we could find out!"

Just then, Madam Pince walked sleepily into the library, in an olive dressing gown and slippers.  The boys and Lily ducked.

"On second thought," James whispered, "maybe we should leave."

They did, too.  They didn't lose an instant before leaving the library and stowing the book away in Remus' trunk, and, vaguely disappointed that nothing else had happened, Lily regained her bed.  She comforted herself, however, with the promise of some wonderfully interesting possible blackmail adventures to come.

Monday morning the Great Hall was filled with nothing but Quidditch chatter as the plates filled and the daily mail and random newspapers were delivered.  Even Lily was starting to get swept up in the excitement of it as they left the Great Hall for their first class.

No one was quite used to seeing Professor Binns enter the room through the blackboard yet, and several people were still letting out odd little screams whenever he did it.  It was unnerving, seeing the ghost of your teacher glide through an apparently solid blackboard, pick up transparent pieces of parchment, and drone on about the Civil War of 1243 among the Bohemian something-or-others or the assassination of the Duke of Hogsmeade in the year 948.  It was something you had to get used to, but it was hard to do.  Still, the students were adjusting relatively well, and they had overcome their disappointment when Professor Dumbledore refused to insist that Professor Binns retire.

The whole week was filled with bets of Italy against Japan, including how long the match would last.  The school was tentative for the week till they received the news that the game was still going on Friday night.  No one waited for Saturday morning.  By unanimous vote, the Quidditch fans left Friday evening.

Lily and Amanda were stuck at Hogwarts again, doing absolutely nothing.  Even Amanda had finished her homework by Saturday, and Sunday was a terribly boring day for them.  Lily had meanwhile developed different ways for her chessmen to kill pawns; one being to jump on them till the were flattened, another to run spears or swords through their necks, hearts, heads, or torso area, depending on the piece, doing a few karate moves and strangling the piece with its own collar, and, of course, plinking it off of the board, plinking being snapping one's fingers right behind the chess piece and watch it rocket off of the board.  Lily reserved that special privilege for herself and the Queen, who could do the same thing with her scepter and a borrowed sword.

When Lily had plinked the last of Amanda's pawns off of the board and watched her knight flatten the opposing queen, her friend was starting to get more than sleepy.  

"Lily, can we wrap this up for today?"

"Why?"

"My head's starting to hurt."

"You haven't been doing a thing!"

"Exactly.  I'm exhausted."

Lily rolled her eyes.  "All right then.  I'm going outside."

Amanda gestured lazily towards the sheets of rain hitting the windowpane.  "Lily, in case you haven't noticed, we've got the Hogwartian Ocean forming outside."

Lily looked.  "I didn't notice.  That should tell you something."

"It does.  You're mentally deranged."  
"Besides that."

"I'm going to bed.  Have fun getting drenched."

Lily smiled as Amanda stood up.  "I've changed my mind."

"I haven't.  Good night."

"Good night," Lily echoed, but Amanda was already out of the room.  Lily shifted a bit on the armchair, and the cold weight of the necklace touched her skin.

"Should I," she whispered to herself.  "Should I?"

It took several minutes for her to decide, but she finally gave up and pulled the necklace out.  "If I die in a battle, everyone on this earth and beyond may reserve the right to say:  'I told you so.'"  She hit the necklace against the wooden parts of the armchair, and busied herself with trying not to hurl as she was flung through the darkness again.

She landed in the Alendoren Cove with a somewhat softer thump this time.  She sniffed the air, glanced hurriedly around, and noticed, to her relief, that this time the inlet was quiet, with no ear-splitting screams or cracks.  Lily made her way quietly to the cave she had met Tom in the last times.  He was there, as was Litharelen, with her arm still in the sling, both of them smiling at each other over Svordsja's back,; they were tending her flank with some sort of ointment.  

Lily harrumphed loudly, and both of them jumped up.  Litharelen's smile stretched all over her delighted face.  

"Lily!  Oh, my goodness!"  She raced for the redhead standing in the cave's door.  "I don't know how to thank you for what you did!"  She hugged her tightly, letting go when Lily started to exaggerate a choking sound.  "I'm sorry.  But really—I would have died—and so would Svordsja—if it hadn't been for you.  I don't know how to thank you!"  She hugged Lily again, and when she pulled away, the glint of something on her left ring finger caught Lily's eye.

"Lith, let me see that!"  She took the elf-nymph's hand in hers, and smiled as the delicate entwine of silver thread with a dark green emerald in the middle caught the light.

"Lith!  Who—"  She stopped as Tom looked up at Litharelen with a faint blush on his cheeks.  "Really?  Oh, I'm so happy for both of you!"  She hugged Litharelen and Tom.  "When's the wedding?"

Tom shrugged.  "I don't know…I guess we're just going to be engaged for the time being."

Lily smiled again.  "Well, send me an owl when you've fixed the date.  "I want to be there!"

Litharelen blushed.  "I will!"

Lily came back to Hogwarts when the moon was rising outside.  She quickly slipped into her bed, smiling as she thought of Litharelen and Tom's happy faces as they told her the news.

The Quidditch game was still on two weeks later, and it looked like James was going to be winning his three-month bet, seeing that it was already up to one.  The weekends at Hogwarts Lily and Amanda were spending alone were getting to be dreaded by Amanda.  She didn't have the Alendoren Cove to look forward to; she had her pillow.  And while her friend was sleeping, Lily would take frequent trips to the Albanian inlet.

Litharelen healed quickly, and in three weeks her arm was as good as new, as Lily had been looking up several healing charms.  The long scar that ran between her eye and her ear was almost gone; one couldn't tell that it had been there if a closer long look wasn't taken.  And Tom, though he did spend an awful lot of time with Litharelen, used up the rest of his time with several older wizards, among them Nott and Crabbe and Goyle, and others who had been fighting at that battle.  They busied themselves among Tom's seemingly inexhaustible library, searching for curses and things of that sort.  

Lily spent most of the time there riding, acting as a scout.  She had volunteered for this; she had heard Tom say that he needed someone to search for Ministry hideouts in the area, and Lily had told him she'd do it.  He was reluctant at first, but finally gave in; he was becoming bit more protective of her ever since she had saved Litharelen.  So she was usually to be found on top of Svordsja's back, thundering over the sands.  

She hadn't found anything or anyone so far; no one seemed to be in the area for a radius of five miles, so these rides were quickly turning into enjoyable excursions.  Lily ignored the fact that she could very well be killed or taken prisoner while she was working against the Ministry.  She still didn't know why she was helping Tom; it was like there was a sort of bond that made her do so.  It was still dangerous for her to visit him; she hadn't forgotten that he wanted her necklace badly, above all else, but all these dangers enveloped the Albanian coast in a mysterical atmosphere, one of fantasy and exotic tales and classic novels.  Lily was living in a fantasy world come to life, and she was enjoying herself beyond anything she had ever imagined.  It was as if she were a character in an adventure story; one that pushed excitement and danger and everything she'd ever dreamed of together, and the result was her life.  

The students were getting even more excited as a month and a half of the Quidditch game went on. They would return every Sunday night with their pockets full of souvenirs and their mouths full of replays.  One Tuesday night, after everyone had gone to bed except Lily, Amanda, Sirius, and James, the girls were pumping the boys for more about the match.

"So, what happened when they almost caught the Snitch?"

James grinned.  "It was awesome.  The Snitch was right next to the commentator box, and then both Seekers rush towards it—" he stood up and began acting it out—"and then Rafer, that Italian Beater, sends this _mean Bludger towards both of them, and they swerve.  Missed it by an inch."  James plopped back down into his armchair.  "Blasted Bludger."_

Lily laughed as Amanda stood up.  "I'm exhausted.  You keep on chatting; I'm going to bed.  Coming, Lily?"

Lily shook her head lazily.  "Too tired.  You go; I'll come once I can persuade my limbs to move."

"I see."  Amanda nodded.  "Which would involve—"

James, Sirius, and Lily cut her off.  "_Work."_

Amanda grinned.  "You've been around Lily too much.  I'll see you three in the afternoon."

Sirius looked puzzled.  "Afternoon?"

"Sure."  Amanda shrugged.  "I'll probably sleep in."

Frowning, James checked his watch.  "Manda, it's Sunday."

"So?"

"Hum."  Lily frowned.  "Amanda, do you know how much your grade will be influenced if you don't attend a class?  You might as well be failing with no chance of pulling up your grade, and wherever you wish to work will not be a possible job for you if your grades aren't high, seeing that no one wishes to employ someone who has failed their fourth year—"

"SHUT UP!"  All three others had joined in on this cry.  Lily glared.

"—their fourth year, you will most likely be living on the goodwill of friends and be an embarrassment to those of us hardworking, smart,--"

Sirius turned to James.  "What say we gag her?"

Amanda snorted.  "Everyone in favor, say 'Aye'."

"Aye!"

"Aye!"

"--and all this will come of your refusing to do your duty and attend your class which it is your honor to be able to attend—"

James joined in, decidedly.  "AYE!"

Amanda brushed a few sparks off of her robes as she turned for the dormitory stairs.  "I'll be going then."

Lily and James nodded.  "See you tomorrow at lunch, then."

Sirius yawned twice.  "I don't know about you two, but seeing that it's midnight, I'm hitting the sack."

Lily raised amused eyebrows.  "And since when do you own a punching bag that you hold boxing fights with in the middle of the night?"

James laughed as Sirius shrugged.  "Been doing it ever since I was three.  Excuse me, please.  I need to hit something."  Yawning again, he left the common room.

Turning sharply to Lily, James hit her lightly on the shoulder.  "Do you realize that we haven't had a fight in over a month?"

Lily shrugged his hand away.  "I know. You haven't been here."

"Which, in this case, is a good thing."

"For you."

"I know.  You enjoy fights."

"Um."

"So…"  James cast around for a good topic.  "You wish you'd gotten tickets?"

"For what?"

"The Quidditch World Cup, brainless."

"I do not, creature with a negative score on the amount of brain cells."

"Lily?"

"Hum?"

"Shut up."

"Make me."

"All right."  He reached over to clap a hand over her mouth, but quicker than he could blink, she had his wrist in a death grip, twisting it away from her.

"OUCH!"

"I'm not shutting up, in case you haven't noticed."

"I have.  LET GO!"

"Never do that again."

He winced for the thirtieth time.  "All right!"

"Good."  She let go, and he pulled back, massaging his wrist.  Soon, however, he stopped, looking up at her.

"Lily?"

"What is it now?"

"Teach me how to do that."

"Why?"

"So you can't do that to me, for one."

"Which is exactly why I'm not going to."

"Lil, please!"

"Maybe.  Are you going to let me go to bed?"

"All right—hold it.  I want to know something."

"Oh, dear God."  Lily rolled her eyes.  "What?"

"You're frequently gone from Hogwarts.  Why?"

_Uh-oh.  "Oh, am I?"  _

"You're bluffing."

"No, I'm stalling.  There's a difference."

"Oh well.  Where are you when you're not here?"

"I'm not off with Severus, in case you were wondering that."

"I wasn't."  He shivered.  "That would just be—well, _wrong.  But seriously, you're always quiet—and about a month ago, after we were gone to the Quidditch Cup, you had a sort of odd scar on your arm; looked like you ran into a thornbush or something."_

"Bingo."

"You ran into a thornbush?"

"Genius."  This wasn't a lie.  Lily had received that scar when she had been riding through a small forest, and there was a clinging vine with thorns that seemed to have taking a liking to her.  

"Uh-huh.  Sure.  Bluffing won't work.  There aren't any at Hogwarts."

Lily wrinkled her nose.  "I'm starting to hate you."

"Don't.  I've learned all this from you."

"I hate myself."

"Don't.  You're not very easy to hate; you know that?"

"You didn't think so last year."

He waved that away.  "I said it wasn't _easy.  Not saying it can't be done.  But really, you are pretty easy to like, when you aren't holding lethal weapons."_

"Um—thanks?"

"You're welcome.  That is—well, that was meant to be a compliment—I guess."

Lily nodded.  "I know.  And I said 'thanks'."

"Welcome."  They sat in silence for a few minutes till James broke it.  "Lil?"

"Um?"

"You still haven't answered my question.  Where've you been?"

Lily shook her head lazily, though her insides were quaking frantically as though she had swallowed a litter of Mandrakes that had decided to yank at the lining of her intestines.  Yank hard.  "Is that any of your concern?"

James wasn't taking any stalling this time, Lily realized.  "Lil, stop that.  There's something going on, and it isn't some silly intrigue with a Slytherin."

"Why do you care?"

"I care."

"Uh-hum."  Lily settled back in her seat, determined not to reveal anything, though she knew it was going to be difficult.

"So?  I've got all night."

"You're not going about this the right way."

He frowned.  "Lil, really.  I've got a feeling that I'm the one with the advantage here.  And I promise, I won't spill what you might tell me to anyone."

Lily couldn't repress the small scornful laugh that burst out, and James scowled.  

"Really!  Whether you believe it or not, I can keep secrets!"

She had control of herself by now, so she only let out a small snort.  "James Potter, you couldn't keep a secret to save your life."

"How do you know," he challenged.

Lily just looked at him, and James wrinkled his nose.  "Never mind."

"I thought so."

"You would.  But, Lily, back to what I asked you at first."

"What about it?"

He put a hand on her knee.  "Lil, you can trust me with anything.  I promise you, you'll need someone to be there for you when whatever this is gets more serious.  I'll be there for you."

Lily almost melted.  His deep blue eyes were so trusting, and she felt drawn to something that pushed her to reveal what she knew, what she had experienced, what she had gone through and what she was hiding.  She opened her mouth slightly; her lips just covered her teeth.  And then—and then—Tom's red, blazing eyes flashed in front of her gaze, and she drew back.

"Well then, you'll just be waiting till that time does come, won't you?"  

She watched James draw back, disheartened and a bit hurt.  Out of filmy, glazing eyes she saw him push his chair back and walk up to his dormitory, and when she was quite sure he had gone, she dropped her head onto her chest and closed her eyes.

Lily had been awake all night; her eyelids had refused to drop and her mind had been spinning around in circles, shouting at her and whirling and thumping the sides of her skull till she thought that her head would simply give under all the pressure and she'd be found dead in the morning with an extremely large hole on the side of her head.  But when the next day dawned, her cranium was still as whole as it could get, being hers, and it was a school morning.  Lily groaned as she stood up from the armchair and shook the long, now a darker red, hair back from her front and shoulders, wishing with all her might that Hogwarts served coffee at breakfast.  Unfortunately, however, this was only given to seventh years and teachers, so Lily was out of luck.  Still, she took herself downstairs to the Great Hall and slid into a chair, dumping as much of the chocolate syrup onto her breakfast as possible.  

Eva entered, sitting down next to her.  "Someone's got an insane craving for chocolate."

Lily shook her head.  "For coffee.  But Hogwarts doesn't serve us coffee."

"I noticed.  So you're turning to chocolate?"

Lily nodded as she numbly poured it into her milk glass.  

"Lily!"

"What?"

"That's disgusting!  Stop it!"

"Stop what?"  Lily looked down and saw that she'd covered a plate of eggs and toast, among other things, with liquid chocolate.  She set the bottle back down.  "Oh."

"Lily, that's nasty!"

"I know.  But you'll live."

"You might not!  Look at that—you'll either be dead from so much sugar or you'll be—you'll be a—a—"  She stopped, stuck for a synonym, and just then Amanda appeared over her left shoulder and dropped a suggestion of her own onto the table.   

"Like a Muggle cheerleader throwing a fit because her pom-poms got stuck in her curls."

Eva smiled as she saw Lily's listless look turn to a disgusted frown.  She pushed her plate away and helped herself to Eva's plate.    
"Thanks."

"Lily!"

Eva poked Amanda in the side.  "It's better than eating—" she gestured over at Lily's other plate, and for lack of a better word, gave the nicest description she could come up with—"_that"_

Lily didn't hear her; James and Sirius had just entered the Hall.  James looked over at her out of eyes with gray rings around them, questioning, almost, and she quickly pulled out a book, something rushing in her ears, something mixed with quite a bit of annoyance.

By the beginning of Potions, however, Lily was almost as usual, taking her pages of notes and giving somewhat annoying bits of advice; annoying because it was frustrating to be confronted with someone who obviously knew much more about the subject than the advisee did.  Eva looked relieved; Amanda hadn't noticed, and James and Sirius were too caught up with the problem of how to extinguish Sirius' hair before Professor Cauldwell noticed that Sirius had bright blue flames on the side of his head.

In Anatomy, Professor Maar took his time entering the classroom, and when he did, the students were on the edge of their seats; they could see that he had brought an animal with him.  He was carrying something wrapped in blankets, and it struggled every so often; it kicked as it was gently laid down on the desk.  Quickly, without hesitation, Professor Maar drew aside the leather-like covering, and the small golden head of a baby unicorn poked jerkily out of the blankets.


	41. Lily's secret revealed

The class gasped in unison and enjoyment. Lily, along with several others, edged closer to the edge of her seat, and when Professor Maar asked them to join him at the front of the room, she was one of the first ones out of her seat.   
It was true; the unicorn bore a resemblance to Svordsja, but it wasn't nearly as grand and stately. Not even when it was grown, Lily could tell, could it match the pentacorn in beauty and elegance. Having almost lived with Svordsja for the last few months, she was quickly becoming more than an expert on pentacorns, and as unicorns weren't as different, her hand reached out for it.   
Lily laid a cool hand on the forehead of the golden, struggling unicorn, just as Professor Maar was about to put it in a small cage on the floor near his desk. It quieted instantly under her touch, relaxed, and put its head down on the desk. Professor Maar shot a questioning glance at Lily, who looked up at him and quickly removed her hand.   
"I—I'm sorry—"   
He cut her off. "No—I don't know many people that can calm a unicorn like that. Have you ever been in contact with one?"   
Lily shook her head. "No, sir." Well, she _hadn't_, not directly, anyway.  Svordsja was a pentacorn.  
"Hum." He scratched his beard twice, then lifted the unicorn off of his desk with a clean, light movement. "We are going out onto the grounds today, as Professor Dumbledore does not wish to have live specimens of this sort inside Hogwarts. Miss Evans and—Mr. Potter, please take the unicorn." The class filed out, walking out of the entrance hall speculating loudly as to what exactly Professor Maar was going to show them. 

The day was rather windy; also a bit humid, and several of the girls were wiping their hair away from their foreheads, groaning, as they walked out into the sun.  As Lily's hair went down to the end of her spine by now, she was one of the first to do so; without the groaning, that is.  They rounded a corner of the Forbidden Forest and came out onto a paddock, where several animals were roped to a post.  

Unicorns.  Five of them.  Three pure, glistening, pearly white, and two younger, silvery-coated high-spirited animals.  Professor Maar beckoned them forward.

"As you all know, we have been studying the intricate mass of veins beneath a unicorn's horn.  If you will please step forward and put your hands on the forehead, and try to discern the two main arteries, I will be much obliged—Miss Evans and Mr. Potter, over here with that baby, please."

Lily gently pulled the golden mass of horn and spindly legs forward to stand in front of her teacher.  "Yes, Professor?"

He frowned with just a hint of a smile in his eyes.  "Tether him over here, please."  He gestured to a smaller pen.  "He runs away frequently.  Our gamekeeper's had quite a bit of trouble with him so far."

"Oh."  Lily knelt down, quickly slipping a piece of thin rope around the baby's neck and around a wooden post, tying it gently but firmly.  She laid her hand on the unicorn's forehead again to quiet him down, and as she did so, she felt the small figure relax under her touch.  Professor Maar was staring at her curiously.

"Miss Evans?"

She jumped up.  "Yes, Professor?"

"Have you had any experience with horses, or any animal of this family?"

Lily shrugged.  "Yes—I ride sometimes."  This was skating rather near thin ice, and she only hoped that Professor Maar wouldn't hurl his hatchet and make her sink into the freezing water.  

"You do?  At Muggle stables, or—"  He let his sentence trail off.

She shook her head.  "I have a friend who owns one.  He lets me ride."

"Oh."  Professor Maar seemed satisfied; at least, he turned away.  But someone else wasn't that satisfied with her explanation—and Lily heartily wished she'd never taught James Potter how to distrust her.

They entered lunch exhaustedly, not because of the exertions, which there hadn't been, but because it was so humid outside.  Lily had resorted to asking Professor Maar for a bit of rope, which was now holding her hair in a somewhat scraggly bun.  But as they entered the Great Hall, with tables stacked full of ice-cold pumpkin juice and the usual delicious lunch, their discomfort was quickly forgotten.  Lily slid into a seat next to Sirius and Rebecca Oxley, the new Quidditch Chaser.

"Hullo."

Sirius looked up.  "Afternoon.  You look hot."

"No, Sherlock, I've just been visiting the glaciers in Switzerland."

"I take it that's a yes."

"You could say that," Lily admitted.  She turned to James.  "What'd you think of the lesson today?"

She was a bit startled.  Lily, naturally, had been expecting him to be stuffing his face, but he was staring at her, almost squinting, and he was frowning slightly.

"What?!  Stop that!  You've been staring at me like that all day!  Will you leave off!"

He didn't turn red; just shrugged and helped himself to the pitcher of pumpkin juice.  "Yeah, fine, got it."

He obviously hadn't, though.  That Thursday night in the common room, he finished his homework quickly, hurriedly, as usual, and then he pushed his chair back, watching Lily out of half-closed eyes as she meticulously calculated and sketched out a model of the star arrangement in the Farthwan wing of the Delvan galaxy.  It was made up, of course, but they had been given a minor arrangement and a list of conditions and they were to give the position of several other stars from there.  Finally, when they were the last two people there, and fed up with this, Lily threw her quill onto the floor, splattering her robes and homework with ink.

"Will you kindly tell me what you're staring at!  I'm getting sick and tired of all this!"  She whirled around in her chair so that she was facing him, arms folded over her chest.

"I need to know what exactly is going on with you.  It really could be bad."

Lily gave something between a sigh and a groan.  "Will you finally give up?"

"Lil, I know a bit too much to do that."

She crossed her legs, challenging him with a hard expression on her face.  "And what do you know?"

"Let's see."  James ticked his items off on his fingers as he named them.  "I know that you're leaving Hogwarts by some method other than the train or Apparation, I know that wherever you're going also has some type of horse that you ride, I know that it's dangerous, and I know that it's in this time zone or one close to ours.  Anything else you'd care to add?"

Lily had to hold in a gasp, but it wasn't easy.  "And where did you—that is, where did you get the material for these ridiculous ideas?"

He shrugged.  "You."

"Excuse me?"

"What I said.  From you."

"So, I have told you that wherever I go is in this time zone, have I?"

"Not exactly."  He shrugged.  "It's just that whenever you're gone, it's at random times of the day, like three in the morning, seven a.m., or six at night.  I figure you'd have to be going somewhere where the time isn't as far off from here."

Lily shook her head.  "You've got an extremely active imagination."

He reached out again for her hand.  "Lil, how much of what I told you is true?"  His eyes, searching and trustworthy, fell upon hers and she sighed, slumping back.

"All of it.  Happy now?  Good.  Go away."

"Lil—"

"GO AWAY!"

"Lily."  

"What?"  She was so frustrated now that she only hoped he'd leave quickly; and right now it seemed that either she'd have to give in to him, which was a bit out of the question, or give in to him, since he obviously wasn't going to let her leave.

"Lily, tell me."  His voice, calm and collected, succeeded in frustrating her even more, and she was working terribly hard on not letting herself explode.

"Will you stop?  Whatever you say I'm doing is seriously none of your business!  It doesn't concern you one iota, so just—just leave me be, all right?"

He looked at her, long and hard, and he finally nodded.

"All right—all right.  Good night, then."  He picked his books up and left up the boys' dormitory stairs.  As soon as his footsteps melted into oblivion, Lily pulled out the necklace from underneath her robes, hit it gently on the arm of her chair, and sank into the blackness again…but something was different.  Lily realized what it was as soon as she hit the sands.  Someone had grasped her arm just as she was spinning out of Hogwarts, and that someone had landed in the Alendoren Cove with her.

"_James Potter!  You—you—you little sneak!  You son of a sloth!  You little offspring of a weasel—you—you—"_

He cut her off.  "Never mind.  I follow your general idea.  So—what is this place?"  He looked around with interest written all over his face.

Lily felt a strong urge to slap him.  "The Alendoren Cove," she told him with as much venom in her voice as was possible.

"The who?"

"Alendoren Cove.  Why'd you follow me here?"

He shrugged.  "I figured you were in trouble.  Or wherever you were going was dangerous.  Now—who're you meeting down here?"

Lily scowled.  "I really do hate you, Potter.  Stay here."  She set off in the opposite direction of Tom's cave, but the next sentence out of James' mouth forced her to stop.

"Isn't where you want to go this way?"  He pointed directly towards the cave, and Lily let out a small shriek of rage.

"So you've followed me here before, have you?"

"Nope."  He shrugged.  "It's just that you're too smart to go directly towards where you intend to end up at, and I happen to know that, so it's a pretty safe guess to say that you're going wherever the opposite direction is."

Lily scowled.  "Fine!  Fine, fine!  But if you breathe a _word about this place to anyone, I will personally yank your intestines out through your nose."_

"I should think that's physically impossible."

Eyebrow raised, Lily stemmed her fists in her side.  "Oh, trust me, I will find a way."

He followed her down the beach.  "You know, knowing you, you probably would."

They reached Tom's quarters relatively quickly, and Lily stepped forward, kicking James in the shin every time he made a noise.  Peering inside the half-gloom, Lily could make out two figures talking in the back of the cave.  She harrumphed loudly.

"Hullo?"

Tom jumped up.  "Lily!  Welcome back…oh, and who is this?" he asked, pointing at James.  Lily stepped on James' foot as he opened his mouth.

"It's a friend of mine—he was determined to find out wherever I was going, and, well, he obviously did.  I came tonight to tell you that I won't be back for quite some time—it's getting a bit too risky."  

Tom nodded, throwing Lily a thankful glance.  She smiled back at him.  

"This is James.  James, meet Tom and—" she gestured to the noble figure appearing next to Tom—"Litharelen de Forneque.  They're very good friends of mine—and they're engaged," she added.

"Oh."  James was a bit puzzled, but he held out his hand.  "Pleased to meet you.  And congratulations."

"Thank you."  Litharelen smiled as she led them towards the back of the cave.  "Have something to drink?"

James declined, but Lily accepted gratefully.  As she gulped down the small glass of litaleter, her eyes roved over the cave, in search of the pentacorn.  Lily set down the glass and ran a hand over her mouth.

"Lith, where's Svordsja?"

Litharelen smiled.  "I think she's outside, roaming.  Want me to call her?"

Lily shook her head.  "I'll do that, thanks.  Can I let James meet her?"

Tom grinned.  "Sure."

When they were outside, Lily grabbed James' collar and shoved him against the nearest boulder.  

"I want you to understand several things while we're here.  One:  if you tell Tom I am Muggle-born, I will get out my thumbscrews.  Two:  if you mention how we got here, we are both dead.  You will be because I will have killed you; I will be because Tom wants this necklace to gain ultimate power.  Understood?"

James nodded weakly, and she released him.  "Good.  So…" her eyes roved over the beach and came to rest on his face—"want to meet Svordsja?"

He frowned.  "Who?"

Lily laughed, it seemed to him to be the first time in ages.  She bit her bottom lip and let out a smooth, low whistle, and immediately afterwards, the ground seemed to shake as the most magnificent creature he had ever seen galloped towards them.  Lily laughed again as she swung herself onto its back and looked down at him.  

"This, my friend," she said, patting the pentacorn's neck—"is Svordsja.  Like a ride?"

James stuttered a bit.  "I've only ridden horses!"

"Well, I didn't ride at all before Svordsja.  Come on up.  I'll try not to let her throw you."

"Gee, what a consolation.  Seems to me that that'd be perfect for you."

"Yeah," she agreed, wrinkling her nose—"but then I'd have to clean the blood spatters off of my robes.  Stand over there," Lily tossed her head, pointing to a rock about a foot away from the sands,

She maneuvered the pentacorn to where James was standing.  Svordsja shied several times, and reared dangerously when James accidentally pulled her mane, but he got on top of her back, behind Lily, without being thrown.  He came close to it, however, when Lily bent down, whispering several soft words in the pentacorn's ear, and Svordsja set off, thundering over the rolling tide.

He grabbed her around the waist; he was more used to a saddle and bridle.  "Have you ever been thrown off?"

She laughed in the wind as she caught his words.  "No.  Never.  Svordsja likes me—don't you, magnificent?"

He gave a sudden groan or gasp as Svordsja cleared a seven-feet-high jutting boulder in one jump, and almost pulled Lily off with him.  She lightly swatted at his hands.

"If you're going to fall off, kindly leave me on!"

"I'll try.  He loosened his hold, but didn't let go.  "So, how'd you first come here?"

She smiled as the foam from two clashing waves hit her full in the face.  "Accident."

"_Accident?"_

"Well, it was.  I only saw Lith the first time, then I saw Tom about the third time I landed here.  By the way, since this is your first time here, I think your body's going to be passed out on the common room floor.  Mine has lately been coming here with me; it didn't do that before.  But I don't know how it is for you."

"Me neither.  Lil, this is actually kinda fun!"

She laughed again.  "Why do you think I do it?"

"I don't know."  She could feel him shrug.  "The fact that you could be killed?"

"Well, that, too," she admitted.  "We'd better be going," Lily added.  "It's almost one in the morning at Hogwarts."

"How do you know?"

"It's this wonderful creation called a watch."  
"Oh.  He looked a bit foolish for a moment, but then smiled.  "All right.  You think we can do this again anytime soon?"

Lily grinned.  "That depends on you."

"Depends on me?"  He was a bit confused.

She smiled.  "Yes, depends on you.  Depends on whether or not you're able of keeping a secret from your special friends.  And, of course, anyone else who just happens to meander around—"

He cut her off.  "All right, all right!  I promised I'd keep whatever this was to myself, didn't I?"

"Yeah, but—well, this is _you."_

"I meant it.  OUCH!"

Lily couldn't help but laugh.  She had steered Svordsja right into a crashing wave, and it seemed that James had been hit in the face.  "You all right?"

"Well, besides the fact that I'm missing a jaw now, yeah!"

Lily tossed her hair, smacking him in the face.  "Good.  Then I don't have to worry about any dumb funeral arrangements.  Anyway, we're going back."  She turned Svordsja around; back towards the cave, deftly guiding her mount over the jutting boulders that had taken their place in the swirling watery, dewy sea.  She did have one scare, however; once, James came extremely close to sliding off, and he had to hold on to her waist; _hard.  He made her let out a sort of gasp, and though she didn't slip off, when she got her breath back and had seen him jump to the ground in front of the cave, she sat sidesaddle on the pentacorn's back, glaring at him._

"You do that again, mister, and I'll make a soprano out of you!"

He held out a hand for her to jump down.  "And how do you intend to do that?"  
"Let me demonstrate."  She did exactly as he had done; put her arms around his waist and pulled tight as hard as she could, feeling quite satisfied when he let out a strangled squeak.

"That's what I mean when I say I'll make a soprano out of you."  She let go, twirled around, and put a light hand on Svordsja's neck; led her back to the cave.

When she led the pentacorn inside, Litharelen took control of the brushes.  "I'll rub her down.  It's about one-thirty your time though; you'd better head back."  

Tom hurried forward with two of the crystal glasses.  "Lily, James?"

James declined again; Lily had the feeling he didn't trust any of the food or the drink given him, but she accepted hers, needing it after James had nearly squeezed the breath out of her.

Lily nodded. "I will.  Thanks, Lith.  I really only came to say I might not be coming for a while is all—you understand why, don't you?"

Tom nodded.  "Yeah.  Thanks, Lily."   

James frowned, but held his questions till they were far enough away.

"What'd he say 'thanks' for?"

Lily lightly smacked him on the back of his head.  "You had already figured out enough, so if I kept this up, probably all of Hogwarts would know.  Mainly because you talk to much, but still…"

"Hey!"  James was indignant.  "I do not talk too much!"

She sighed.  "Of course you don't.  My mistake.  Oops.  Terribly sorry.  As usual."  She stopped about fifty yards away from the cave, and quickly pulled James behind the highest piece of stone she could find.

"What's this about?"

"Idiot.  Hold onto me, tight.  You don't want to be lost in oblivion, do you?"

He shook his head.  "For once, no."  Taking her around the waist again, he nodded.  "Go ahead."

Lily squared her shoulders, pulling out the necklace.  She turned her head slightly.  "Don't let go; it you do, I'm not coming after you."

"Aww, why not?"

She sniffed.  "Even you should know the answer to that one."

"I do.  Well—do and did, you cold-hearted little demon."

Lily smiled self-satisfactorily.  She took the necklace in her hand and hit it, hard, against the screening rock, and a minute later they were swirling through blackness and landed back at Hogwarts, slamming hard into the carpet.

It took a moment for them to catch their breath, Lily kneeling in front of a table, her head on her arms, and James spread-eagled on the floor.  Lily was the first to stand up.

"Satisfied now?"  
He nodded.  "Yeah.  Say—how'd you get there in the first place?"

She shrugged.  "I told you.  It used to be that if you just stared into the necklace, it'd take you there, but then Serena did something to it, and now it only works if you hit it against something."  
James frowned.  "Serena?"

"Yeah."  She shrugged again.  "I was going to kill her, but then I'd have to clean up the mess."

"I see." 

"So."  Lily turned to leave, but then she swirled back.  "And you're keeping this to yourself."

He nodded, opening his eyes for the first time since they'd been back and jumping up.  "Sure—LILY!"

"Sh!"  She almost dashed over to him, clapping a hand over his mouth.  "Will you _shut up?"_

He removed her hand with an effort.  "Lily, your _hair!  And—my God, look at your eyes!  You all right?"_

"Oh."  Lily scowled.  "You idiot.  That's the odd effect the Alendoren Cove's water and the litaleter has on me.  Problem with that?"

He frowned.  "Well—no—but, geez, you look—well, yeah, pretty, but really odd!"

"James, shut up.  I _am odd.  If I weren't, well, I would just be like someone after a dementor's kiss.  And you can just keep your flattery to yourself and find someone who appreciates it.  I don't, all right?"  
"Whoa, clam down!"  He put an arm around her shoulders, as she sort of smirked and frowned at the same time. _

"Clam down?"

"I guess.  I meant calm down.  Anyway, whatever works for you.  Come on, don't be so mad, not at me—I didn't do anything!"

She folded her arms, knocking his from her shoulders.  "No, you only put me through the third degree and hazarded my life by following me."

"Hey!"  He faked a hurt sniffle.  "What about my life?"

She laughed.  "You should have noticed by now that I care more about mine than yours.  Which isn't saying much, as I don't care that much about mine."

He reached back out and took her arm.  "Well, I do."

"Self-absorbed little rabbit."

"I mean about your life."

"Oh."

She frowned.  "Why are you telling me this?"

James shrugged.  "No reason, really…I just felt like it."

She smiled.  "Good enough.  Are you letting me go to bed now?"

He grinned wickedly as he held both her wrists in a tight grip.  "No!  No bed for you!  Bad Lily!"  

Lily tried to duck and spin out of his grip, but she was laughing to hard to do so, especially when he started tickling her.  It took her a full five minutes to sufficiently control herself up to the point that she realized that, even though it was two in the morning, she _wasn't tired._

"James?"

"What?"  He looked up expectantly.

"Are you going to bed?"

He shrugged.  "I guess so."

"All right."  She nodded.  "Then I'm staying down here.  Good night!"  Lily twisted around and vanished up the stairs, only to return moments later with the [i]Adventures of Robin Hood.[/i]  James was still flopped over a chair.

"What was that about?"

Lily sat down, crossing her legs.  "I figure that if I stay with you any longer, you'll force me to reveal even more stuff that I really don't want revealed."

He grinned.  "Like your undying love for Severus Snape."

"And yours for Lucius Malfoy."

"Hey!"  He glared at her playfully.  "Don't make fun of my boyfriend, now!"

Lily couldn't help it.  She snorted loudly, giggling.  "James, that was _really uncalled for!"_

He sighed affectedly.  "I know, I know.  But—" here he snapped his head up—"it did make you laugh!"

That had been the only reason he'd said it.  It wasn't as if he really liked her any way other than being her friend—she really was impossible to be around at many times—but she hardly ever laughed lately; the only time he'd really seen her laugh was at the Alendoren Cove, when she was riding—and she did look really pretty when she laughed, he thought to himself as he glanced at the silvery strands crossing her newly-snake-shaped eyes and the long mane of hair that was down to her waist by now.  But then he grinned, tossing that out of his mind.  

The next morning at breakfast, the Quidditch fans were jabbering excitedly about the game, which was still on.  They'd brought in lots of reserve players so far, but on Saturday the original players were supposed to be back, which gave way to a lot of wide-eyed speculation on the length of the game.  

Lily kept glancing nervously over at James; she had believed him at the time he'd told her that he wouldn't tell anyone, but that assurance was slowly fading, and the fact that he'd spilled about her father was pushing its way determinedly into her mind again and again.  Finally, she caught his eye, and he gave her a small grin and a nod.  It wasn't much, but it reassured her and gave her an appetite for breakfast, which was pancakes and French toast with cinnamon sugar, at least on her plate.

That Saturday and the next, she and Amanda were alone again, having fun yawning their jaws off.  Lily had just finished winning a narrow chess game (Amanda was getting much better), and finally they engaged themselves in having a Chocolate Frog fight.  It was only when they were picking up shards of chocolate from the floor, laughing themselves sick, that Amanda decided to ask what had been on her mind for several days.

"Lily?"

Lily, who had just finished accidentally shoving a card into her mouth instead of the Frog, spit the cardboard out and replied with a somewhat unintelligible "Hm?"

"Lily, I—"  Amanda was looking for words.  "What's going on with you and James?"

"Huh?"  This time Lily really did swallow half of the card.  "Excuse me?"

"I don't know—" Amanda shrugged—"you're usually smiling at each other, and I caught him passing a note to you once…"

"Oh, that."  Lily waved it away.  "Nothing.  Nothing at all." 

"Well, what was in the note?"

Lily noticed too late that she'd made a mistake.  "That would be for me to know and you to wonder about."

Amanda lounged across the couch.  "I"ll get it out of you someday!  Or, if not me, than that Snape character."

Lily frowned.  "Severus?"

"Yeah, him—he's been glaring at James everywhere he goes, and looking at you with these really hurt expressions—Lily, that git's got it bad."

"Got what?"

Amanda scowled.  "Lily, you are one of _the densest people.  Can't you tell how much he likes you?"_

Lily sighed.  "Amanda, he's nothing more than my friend,--"

"Yeah, well, he _obviously isn't satisfied with that appointment."_

Her friend groaned.  "Amanda, shut it!"

Just then, they heard a tapping of a beak on the windowpane.  Lily jumped up, opening it and letting the falcon-like owl in, who let its letter be untied from its leg and then perched on the mantelpiece, cocking its head to one side as it took in the room.  Quickly, Lily flipped over the envelope.

"This is almost scary."

"What?"  Amanda sat up hurriedly.  "To you from Snape?"

"Yeah."  She ripped it open and quickly took out the letter, unfolding it and curling up in a chair, keeping it away from Amanda, who tried in vain to read it over her shoulder.

_Dear Lily,_

_I'm at the Quidditch game right now—well, of course you know that, but Whistler, that Italian Seeker, just wiped out the second reserve Seeker for __Japan__, so I've got a few free minutes—hey__, I'd really like to talk to you.  Meet me in the library common room or at the next Hogsmeade trip sometime?  I'd really love to talk to you…but anyway, I guess I'll be waiting for your answer then…_

_S.S.___

Lily slowly let the letter sink onto her lap as Amanda's last observations started to sink in.

When the Quidditch fans returned Sunday evening, right before dinner, the match still hadn't ended and the amount of bets on the length of it were going steadily up.  The highest so far had been five years, but, well, Peter just wasn't the brightest person around, to make it nice.  Still, it was fun laughing at him, though it would have been funnier if he hadn't only staked three Sickles.

After dinner, Lily left the Great Hall early; she had no intention of going another night without sleep, which had happened last night; Amanda had kept her awake, talking and jabbering excitedly about the letter from Severus.  When she left the entrance hall and stepped off of a staircase, no sooner had she stepped off than she was whisked into an empty classroom.

"Severus?"

He turned a sort of red.  "Lily, I just really wanted to talk to you."

Lily sort of half-frowned.  "All right—I suppose so.  What?"

He sat down on a desk, smiling softly as she let herself fall into a chair, flicking a strand of almost auburn hair out of her eyes.  "Lily, I want you to know something."

"Yes?"

"Remember what I asked you during that Christmas party last year?"

Lily turned a sort of red as she pulled her legs up to sit Indian-style.  "Yes."

"Well—I just wanted to know if you'd reconsidered lately.  I don't want you to feel like I 'm pressuring you at all, really—I just really like you is all."

Lily dropped her head.  Sure, he was wonderfully nice, and being who she was, she couldn't care less if he was a Slytherin or not, but…well, for some reason some other image kept drifting across her mind.  Slowly, she shook her head.

"Severus, I'm only fourteen.  I can't."

He shrugged.  "It's not like I'm proposing marriage—"

"I know that!"  She cut him off.  "I'm just not ready for this.  I know you don't want to hear the 'it's not you, it's me!' thing, but…well, that's honestly how it is."  She smiled half-apologetically.  "Severus, I live half in my own little fantasy world of books and dreams and death as it is.  I wouldn't be much good to you."

He shook his head; almost couldn't believe it.  "Lily, that's what I like about you.  You—you're so different and interesting and—and—I don't know what it is, but you're one of the most amazing people I know."  Almost pleading, Severus looked straight into her eyes.  Lily closed her own, trying to think of how to formulate what she had to say.  Finally, she flung her eyelids open.

"Severus, since my mother died and everything with my father happened—I don't know—it just seems like I'm not capable of feeling anything.  I've tried to imagine my dearest friends dying many times, and it's like I don't care.  I don't know if I'm capable of liking anyone beyond friendship.  I really don't."  She let her lips partly cover her teeth for a minute, then told him the rest.

"Severus, I tried to replay my mother's death and funeral last night.  I didn't cry; I didn't anything.  It was just a sort of numb feeling, like I can't care about it.  And I honestly don't know whether I'm capable of loving anyone or anything anymore."  

Almost out of breath, she set her head down on folded arms and just sat there for a minute, only moving when she felt Severus' hand on her shoulder.  

"Lily, I'll wait—I'd wait forever."  They sat there in silence for a few minutes, and then Lily stood up.

"Severus, I'd better be going."

He nodded.  "Right, right.  See you tomorrow?"

She smiled.  "We have Potions first, don't we?"

"Yeah, we do."  He slipped an arm through hers and escorted her back to about three corridors away from Gryffindor Tower, where he gave her a quick hug and then vanished almost before she could catch her breath.

Quickly, Lily pushed the portrait open (Greek fire), and was faced with a scraggle of first years, terribly desperate because they had just figured out how to stop up three bathtubs quite effectively, and, as Lily discovered when she entered the bathroom, they'd also forgotten to turn the water off…

Halloween was that Monday, and the feast was terrific; the usual bats everywhere, the shimmering, sparkling candles, the jack-o-lanterns at the tables, placed at two-foot intervals along the white tablecloth, the orange and black decorations, and the sprinkled, iced cookies and pies that had been made in the shape of traditional Halloween pumpkins and bats.  There were also crystal bowls of colored pudding, but Eva and Lily 'forced' themselves to confiscate James' and Sirius' when they got a 'food fight' look on their faces.  

Somewhere in the middle of the evening, James leaned over to Lily.  "Lil, Amanda told me that you got a letter from Snape."

"She did, did she?"

"So, what was in it?"

"That's for me to know and you to wonder about."

"Demon."

"I know."

When Lily looked up, she met two terribly angry eyes.  Though Lily had been sure she didn't care about James at all, Serena was still jealously eyeing Lily.

When the feast was over (around ten-thirty), one thousand stuffed students made their lethargic ways to their respective common rooms.  Most of them fell asleep right away, even though they'd been given all of next morning's classes of, but Lily stayed awake, thinking, half-dreaming, and watching a mist cloud up the window in her dormitory.


	42. One of the hidden qualities of a strange...

The Quidditch game had been going on for two and a half months by the time that Lily had broken her previous records with a grade of one hundred and sixty on a Transfiguration exam.  Her friends were getting heartily sick of seeing the self-satisfied smile on her face, and she'd been warned by Amanda that if she kept that up, she'd have her mouth cut off.  It was the middle of November, and rain was whipping the windows.  They had just been told that the Quidditch Inter-House-Cup would not be held that year, as the World Cup was lasting so long, so one dreary Tuesday afternoon, Lily was glaring at the rain hitting the glass as the complainers on the couches moaned about missing a year of Hogwarts Quidditch.  The team's players, surprisingly, were the least outspoken; they were actually rather quiet and dismal.

Finally, Lily got bored with glaring at raindrops, so she stood up and left for her dormitory, mumbling about brainless atoms that didn't know better than to combine.  Her comments earned her a lot of odd looks, but it wasn't as if she cared much.

Once in her dormitory, she threw herself onto her four-poster, trying to ignore the drafty breeze that was sweeping the tower.  But when she had finished ignoring that, her attention was inevitably drawn to a group of giggling girls on another bed.

"Right.  So then I told him—"

"You _didn't?"_

"Well, of course I did.  You don't think I'll let him go after her without a fight, do you?"

"I didn't think you would.  You're you, of course!"

"I know.  But what do you think I should tell him next?"

"I don't know.  The 'damsel in distress' mode worked pretty well back in third year—you could try that."

"Well, but that's so cliché.  I need something new.  Does he like smart girls?"

"I guess so.  He seems to like that other one there—"

"Don't ruin my day.  I don't need to think of that right now."

Their voices dropped after that, but Lily had already heard enough of the conversation to bore her to a sort of dozing mood.  Not sleep; she wasn't exactly sound asleep, just sort of lightly unconscious, so she was able to sit up quickly when the girls had gone to dinner and someone tapped her on the shoulder, hitting that person in the jaw with her shoulder.  Which she did.

"OW!"

Lily cringed, rubbing her shoulderblade.  "Sorry.  But don't ever do that again.  By the way, you're not supposed to be in here."

James shrugged.  "It's dinnertime—are you hungry?"

Lily thought about that for a few minutes and decided no, she wasn't.  

"You're impossible."

"I know.  Any other reason you came up here to talk to me?"

James sat down on her bed.  "Yeah—kinda.  There is.  Lily, I want to talk to you about that Amen Beach thingy."  
"The who?"

"With the funky unicorn."  
"Ah."  Lily closed her eyes.  "The Alendoren Cove.  What about it?"

"Yeah—that—hey, Lil, what's that Tom character's real name?"

She frowned as she sat up straight.  "Tom Marvolo Riddle.  Why?"

James gulped.  "Lily?"

"Yeah?"  
"You do know he's wanted by the Ministry?"

Lily nodded.  "I could see that."

"You _know?  How could you—I mean—"_

Lily gritted her teeth.  "James, if Sirius were wanted, would you turn him in?"

He saw her point.  "Well—no—but still!"

"But still what?  Tom and Lith are my friends.  Live with it.  And if not, then you can die."

He frowned.  "Lil, Tom hates all Muggle-borns.  He could kill you."

She tossed her head.  "I saved his fiancée from death.  He isn't going to kill me."

James' eyes opened wide.  "You _what?"_

"Oh, no."  Lily clapped a hand to her forehead.  "Me and my big mouth."

Frowning, James pulled her off the bed.  "Lil, we've got to talk."

He pulled her towards the house-elf exit, and she followed, grumbling, frowning, and scowling all at the same time.  

When they reached the chamber and James had shut the door securely, Lily managed to shake his hand off of her arm.  

"Will you kindly leave my arm in the socket!  Contrary to popular belief, I do like having the use of it!"

James sat down in a chair and directed her to one.  Fuming, she placed herself in it, sitting Indian-style.

"So, what's this about your saving Litharelen from death?"

Lily sighed.  There was no use asking him not to tell anyone; either he knew not to or he was a complete prat who would delight in seeing her disembowel a basin of Flying Squids every night for a month.

"James, this isn't going anywhere."

"Besides my brain, that is."

"Besides what brain?"

"Ha.  Ha."  James was grinning bleakly.  "I'm dying laughing.  Lily.  Tell me."

Lily took one good look at him, then, satisfied for the moment that her secrets were safe, she plunged into her narrative.  Several times, James flicked his wand, providing her with a mug of hot chocolate, but otherwise, he simply sat there, listening to her talk.  When she had finished, she set the mug down on the nearby table with a loud crash.  
"Wow.  You know, Lil, if you changed the names around a bit, you could publish that as a book."

"That may be.  My question is: what are we doing about this?"

He looked surprised.  "_We?"_

"Sure."  Lily shrugged.  "You forced me to spill, so you're sharing the consequences.  What are we doing about this?"

James frowned, thinking hard.  He ran his hand through his hair one more time before he looked up.

"Well, obviously, you've got to keep this away from Dumbledore, which means away from your friends."

Lily raised an eyebrow.  "Only a rocket scientist would have figured out that much."

"And you'd better stay away from Tom for a while—you gave him an excuse last time you were there.  It's getting dangerous—from what I've gathered, he's getting more impatient for that necklace every day.  If he finds you with it, and that you've kept it from him—well, your future really depends on how much he likes Litharelen."

"I figured that, too."

He continued as if she hadn't interrupted him.  "And this would also mean keeping that necklace hidden, since I don't think it can transport itself there.  How does it work again?"

Lily pulled it our from underneath her robes.  "You hit it against something."

"Oh."  James held his hand out for it.  "Let me see something…thanks," he added as Lily unclasped the necklace and laid it in his palm.  Curiously, he examined the stone.  Not one scratch mark or dent had defaced the golden talons or the midnight-blue stone, and a small silver mist was swirling around inside it.  James handed it back to her, but then stopped in mid-gesture, his mouth half-open.  Lily frowned.  

"James?"

No answer.

"James?"

His fingers curled around the chain.  
"Potter!"

He frowned, and just as she prepared to raise her voice again, he jumped up, holding it out.  "I just had a stroke of genius!  Here, Lil, put it back on."

She grimaced.  "What?"

He threw it at her.  "Just put it on!"

As she obeyed, still somewhat confused, she saw him retreat to the other side of the room, brandishing his wand.

"Lily, I'll use a small hex at first.  Keep _very still."_

Lily nodded as she stepped forward two or three feet; there were only six feet between them.  James aimed and flicked his wand once.

"Tarantallegra!"

A blast of almost clear blue light shot out of his wand and wend straight for Lily; when it reached her, James had aimed it at the necklace.  It hit the stone and surrounded it in a blazing blue light, and before the blast of the hex had vanished in a flash, James could see the light of the curse being jerked back into the wand.  

James nodded.  "Just as I thought.  It'll repulse any spell aimed straight at it."

Lily frowned.  "What does that mean?  Bad or good?"

He dropped his wand.  "That depends on the way you look at it.  The way I see it, for right now it's good, because as long as it hits the necklace, you won't get hit with any curse or anything like that.  The bad thing is that I don't know how long it'll do that; under how strong a curse it can hold up against and it wearing the necklace affects you in any way; and if it does burst under a strong curse, whether the hexes will all come flying right out at you, which, at the least, would render you near death, depending on the amount of hexes it's got in itself.  I also don't know whether it has a mind of its own and gets a bit of power every time it sucks in the magic, and if it does that, will it get a mind of its own and/or can it control you.  You see," he finished.  

Lily quickly shut her mouth.  "I see."

"So," he asked, "are you going to continue wearing that?"

Lily nodded.  "I have to.  Who knows what could happen if it were stolen and that person angered Tom or Lith in any way?"

James looked at her appraisingly.  "That is _really brave of you."_

Lily shook her head.  "Not really.  I don't feel brave—I just figure that each of us has to die sometime, and I'm one of the few people who don't want to die old and wrinkly and in a bath-chair."

He shrugged.  "_I don't want to die."_

Lily laughed.  "Well, if you want to keep hanging around me, that's going to have to change."

"Why so?"

"My friend, look at where you landed when you followed me about a month or so ago." 

He shrugged.  "True.  But I sorta enjoyed that."  
"Ah."  Lily smiled.  "You're turning into me now.  Starting not to be scared of death…tsk, tsk."

"And that's a bad thing?"

"Depends on who you're with."

"True."  They were silent for a few moments; then Lily broke out with a completely random thought.

"What are you planning to do after Hogwarts?"

James frowned.  "Why?"

"So we can have a topic of conversation."

"That's a decent reason."  He considered it for a minute, then got an extremely wicked grin on his face.  Lily was instantly alert.

"What?"

"I'm picturing you as a fashion model."

Lily narrowed her eyes.  "You'd better be glad that you're sitting several feet away from me."

"I know. That's why I said it when I'm not three inches away from you.  I'd get slapped or worse."

She nodded emphatically.  "You would.  Preferably 'worse', if I got my way.  Which I would."

"Hey now!"  James was grinning.  "You're not counting the fact that I'd fight back!"

"Actually," Lily smirked, "considering your fighting skills, I am including that in my calculations."

"Hey!"

"It's true."

He dropped back.  "Yeah. But one day I'm going to get you to teach me how to fight."

"One day."

"Today would be good."

"But today isn't going to happen."

"Demon."

"Wizard."

"I don't take that as an insult, since that is what I _am."_

"Ditto, ditto, Mr. Brooke."

He was confused now.  "Mr. _Brooke?"_

"Um-hum.  From _Little Women.  'I do it to please you, my dear,' said Mr. Brooke, nodding at his wife.  'Ditto, ditto, Mr. Brooke,' was her answer."_

"Ah."  James shook his head.  "You read too much."

"You read too little."

James was about to respond, but then he and Lily froze.  Footsteps were sounding down the hallway, and James could tell Lily recognized them, as she cringed.

"Who is it?" he whispered.

Lily shrank back.  "Severus."

"_Snape?"_

"Yeah, him.  _Can __we __leave?"_

"Why?"

"Well—Lily knew there really was no way out of this—"he asked me to be his girlfriend a while back, and I said no, and if he finds us in here, I'm pretty sure I can say goodbye to his friendship and that of any of the Slytherins."

"And that would be a bad thing?"

Lily gave him a Look.

"All right, all right."  He pulled her towards the exit, but just then, Severus' feet stopped right in front of them.  James and Lily withdrew from the door as if it had just turned white-hot.

"What do we do now?"  Lily's voice was rather small and scared.

James' eyes roved the room, and he quickly pulled her into a niche that was mostly covered by a statue of a Quidditch player with a "K" on his robes.  As the entrance swung open, James quickly jumped back.

"What're _you doing here?"_

Severus grinned.  Evilly.  Very evilly.  "I found this in a room.  Potions room, to be exact."  He held out a bit of parchment.

James snatched it from him.  "You son of a –"

"Easy on the language, Potter," Severus drawled.  Lily hated to think this, but she understood now exactly why James and Co. hated Severus, Inc.

"Since when do you have the right to go through my things?"

"I gave myself that right.  So…" he waved his hand around the room, "interesting place you've got here."

James clenched his fist.  "I know that's not a compliment."

"No, it's not, seeing that the only good thing in here is the stuff you stole from our common room."

Lily really wanted to sock him.

"It's not as if anyone in your House would notice, seeing that they're all lacking all of their brain cells."

Lily really wanted to sock both of them.

"That the best retort you can come up with?"

"No.  I just didn't say what I really wanted to, because then, well, the people in the portraits'd be scarred for life."

"Interesting.  So—does McGonagall know about this?"  Severus pointed to the room again.

James re-clenched his fists.  "Yes, genius, and she threw a party for the Easter bunny in here, too."

"So she wouldn't mind if I re-informed her of it?"

"You—"  Lily toned out the rest of his speech, as she knew she really didn't want to hear that stream of language.  It included several words like 'bloody' and worse, though.

"Language, Potter."  Severus smiled nastily. "So I take it she wouldn't?  All right—I'll just take the liberty of refreshing her memory—_Lily!"_

Both Severus and James were shocked beyond anything else.  Lily had stepped out of the niche.  Immediately, as usual, she took control of things.  

"James, this place doesn't seem to be as secret as you thought it would be.  Look—Severus found it, and now me—you really should keep it more hidden."

Luckily, James wasn't capable of coherent speech yet.  His mouth was still flopping open like a drunk goldfish's would.

"Well, it really oughtn't to be such a shock."  Lily turned to Severus.  "I caught the last bit of what you two were saying—Severus, dear, please don't turn him in.  I use this place for homework late nights."

James managed a few words.  "What—why—"

Luckily only a few, Lily thought.  "Not that I care about _him—" she jerked her thumb over her shoulder at the drunk goldfish—"but he'd probably also mention my name.  Do you mind?"_

Severus regained his normal smile.  Lily was glad of that—the nasty smile had been a bit unnerving.  More than a bit.

"Sure, Lily.  You going back to bed now?"

Lily shot a quick glance at James.  "I meant to finish a Divination essay."

"Oh."  He nodded.  "Well—see you tomorrow then."  Severus vanished and shut the door quietly.

Almost wheezing with gratitude, James turned to Lily.

"How did you _manage that?"_

Lily smiled smugly.  "I'm me; what can you say?"

He grinned.  "Well, then 'me' is definitely a good person or thing to have around in emergencies!  Come here, you!"  He reached an arm out and pulled her close, playfully ruffling her long hair and throwing it everywhere, including accidentally in his mouth, making him spit it out.  She tried to push him away at first, but ended up laughing along with him.  

"Okay, stop!  Stop!"  She bent over _double as he started tickling her, and finally she fell to her knees on the carpet, whispering frantically, "Stop!"_

He took her back to her dormitory later; later being about two o'clock.  As he shoved her inside the door, he pinched her cheek.  "Bad, bad miss prefect—staying out at these hours of the night, with the infamous Quidditch player Mr. Potter!  You know, we might have to cancel your prefect privileges for this."

Lily turned back.  "James, several words.  Do not call me Miss Prefect unless you wish to walk out of here missing several vital body parts for the only kind of sport other than Quidditch you're capable of."

He frowned.  "Huh?"

"Think about it."  She quickly vanished inside and shut the door, and by the time the lightbulb had clicked on, he was faced with a solid, locked, oak door.


	43. An Animagi Accident and the advantages o...

Two weeks flashed by, and James told Lily that Remus had been overheard Thursday evening to say before he fell asleep: 

_"Now I lay me down to sleep_

_I pray the Lord my soul to keep.  _

_For if the Quidditch game ends tonight, _

_I might as well be Fishy Delight."_

James hadn't forgotten that if the game ended this weekend, Remus would owe James ten Galleons, and, well, Remus was currently in possession of a negative amount of money.  Lily had had to stuff a fist into her mouth to keep from letting a snort that could be heard all over the common room when she heard the last line.  Fishy Delight was a self-invented worm mess that James and Sirius fed their fish.  It involved lots of cayenne pepper, hacked worm, crushed Filibuster's Firework powder, and regular gunpowder.  

Out of about fifty, there were two fish left alive.  It only took two weeks for the forty-eight to die.

Lily used to say that if anyone wanted their enemies to die, all they'd have to do would be to purchase a can of fish food from James and Sirius and tell them it was hamburger meat.  Either it'd explode while they were cooking it or they'd be poisoned at the first bite.  Lily should know.  Lily had been fed it once.  

Lily was also the only one that hadn't thrown up at first sight of the mess.  She'd tried it because she had been bored and was feeling rather suicidal at the moment.  As it turned out, she only felt like there was a minor gold excavation where one used dynamite going on in her stomach, and she managed to conceal it from the boys.  It was quite an accomplishment, as the whole common room had expected her to regurgitate it onto James robes when the smell of it hit her nose.

That weekend, the Quidditch-goers left as usual, but they returned in time for lunch on Saturday.  Everyone immediately jumped on them for news.

"Who won?  What happened?  Who caught it?  What was the score?  What was the speed of both the Seeker brooms?  Have you got any Omnicular replays?  Did Potter and Black have anything to do with bewitching brooms or players?"

The last was the most repeated question.  It turned out that Japan won, the Japanese Seeker caught the Snitch, the score was four thousand seven hundred and sixty to three thousand nine hundred and ninety, the speeds were about eighty miles an hour, yes, there were several thousand Omniculars being offered that had replays, and no.  James and Sirius had, for once, controlled themselves.  For once.  It had happened a week ago that James' wand had slipped and that a large display of sparks had mysteriously temporarily blinded the Egyptian Seeker.  Remus was not happy.  He was going to have to cough up ten Galleons.  Not happy _at __all._

Christmas holidays were approaching quickly; by the time they rolled around, everyone was ready to see their parents.  Besides Lily.  She hadn't told anyone about this, but something about her sister and father simply made her livid; they were too—too—too _ordinary. too receptive of whatever life dealt them—so __boring.  They seemed never to wish for excitement, never to want anything out of the usual monotonous rhythm of daily life, and Lily could never see herself doing that.  She wanted at least __some variation; even robbing a museum of Egyptian artifacts would work, as long as it was sufficiently guarded, her wand was taken away, she couldn't Apparate, and there was a pretty large risk of being caught.  Life, she felt, was no fun unless you __did something with it.  You had a short time on earth, she thought; why waste it?_

So she had written her father and sister and told them that she would be staying at Hogwarts over the summer to do some extra studying.  It was as good an excuse as any, she thought, though the three weeks at Hogwarts would be rather boring; Amanda was leaving, Eva and Vanessa were going; there wouldn't even be Serena to antagonize.  Her father was taking her along on an International Ministry of Magic council meeting in Martinique; an island in the Caribbean, and Serena had asked to come.  Naturally, her wish had been granted, and, Lily though dryly, she'd probably have the time of her life among old, wrinkly ministers telling her how lovely she looked.  

By herself just after the rest of Hogwarts had gone home, she was getting rather sick and tired of lying on her bed, reflecting.  Eva had begged her parents to let her stay, but they had insisted that she come home and spend some time with her family, and Lily hadn't told anyone else that she was staying.  As a result, she was frightened out of her wits when she heard a loud _bang downstairs in the common room. _

Sitting up quickly on her four-poster, she slid into a pair of slippers and made her way quickly down to the common room, where she was met mid-way by a huge wall of smoke invading her lungs.

Coughing madly, she leaned on the banister, trying desperately not to hurl.  The smoke, besides being blueish-gray and rather thick, had the smell of the incense she'd once burned in her room, which was supposed to smell like 'Egyptian Must' but ended up leaving her room reeking like cigarette smoke.  She had been nine at the time, and her mother almost had her head.

Stepping blindly downstairs into the foggy grayish mass, Lily tripped over something and went flying. She only had time to hear the thing she'd tripped over mutter:  "Ouch!" before she hit the ground.

Pushing herself up on her hands and knees, Lily whirled, looking at whatever she'd stumbled on.  It had a mass of unruly, dark hair, and was trying to stand up, holding his side.  Rolling her eyes, but closing them immediately afterwards because of the wafts of smoke entering her eyes, Lily pointed her wand somewhere in the room.

"Reducto!"

She knew that this spell was supposed to be used for solid objects, but, well, if this grayish smoky cement-type material wasn't solid, she didn't know what was.  It worked well; at least she was able to see and breath relatively well, though she noticed that all of the torches and the fire were out, which wasn't such a good thing, as it was quite cold outside.  Cold enough for a light blizzard, which, in fact, was what was happening outside. 

Lily stalked over to James, who was the nearest crumpled heap she could reach.  Squirting him with a few drops of water from the end of her wand, she swiveled to face him.

"And what, may I ask, do you think you're doing?"

James kind of blushed.  "Practicing."

"Practicing what?"

"Um—ah—that is—oh, hi, Sirius!"  James leaped over the back of the sofa and hit Sirius on the back several times.  "Good, you're up.  Where's Peter and Remus?"

Sirius shrugged, but then caught sight of the shocked redhead.  "Oh, hi, Lily."

She gave a curt nod.  "_What, may I ask, happened here?"  
"Oh."  James twitched a bit.  "Peter had an accident."_

"A _what?"_

"An accident.  His wand's been acting funny."

"Umph."  Lily threw herself down onto a chair and pointed her wand at the window, which immediately swung open, letting the thick, hazy mess escape.  She only closed it when Peter started yelping at the cold, and James wasted no time in relighting the torches and common room fire. 

James withdrew his wand, slipping it back into his sleeve.  "I didn't know you were staying."

"I didn't know you were."

"True," he amended.  "We didn't tell anyone."

"So I gathered."

"Yeah.  Oh, Rem, buddy, you awake?"

Remus umphed as he shook his dirty blond hair out of his eyes.  "No; I was abducted by evil dementors and clubbed on the head several times and lost the feeling in my right foot."

James snorted, as did Sirius.  "Where did _that come from?"_

"An extremely clogged brain.  Peter, that was brilliant!"

A mousy figure behind a sofa emerged.  "Thanks!"  Peter jumped over the back of the chair, managing to trip and fall face forward onto thin air, so he was half hanging onto the sofa with his feet, half staring at the floor.  Lily let out a loud laugh.

"Absolute genius, my friend—_what is that?"_

She was pointing to Peter's hind end, which had sprouted a long, ratlike tail, made painfully obvious by the rear end of the owner sticking up for every dust mote to land on that wished to do so.  Lily instantly looked behind her at James and Sirius, catching their involuntary start.

"Ah-hah!"  

They all whirled around to look at her.  "What?"

"What are you four up to?"

"Us?"  They spoke in unison.

"Yes, you!  No, I meant the fluffy pink bunnies that attack feet.  Who do you think I meant?"

No answer.

"That's what I thought.  Now—honestly, what were you trying to do?  Either your Transfiguration experiment went really wrong or—" she flailed around for an explanation—"or you're trying to become Animagi and it's just gone terribly wrong."

As soon as she'd said it, she knew it was the truth, simply by looking at their shocked and frightened faces.  Lily shrugged. 

"But, since, of course, you KNOW that that would get you expelled, I think you'd better keep Peter away from his wand.  That smoke was a bit too much.  Are you four all right?"

Quickly, they pulled themselves together and Peter out of sight.  "Sure, we're fine.  Say—"  James smiled—"anyone up for a Hogsmeade visit?"

Lily frowned.  "There isn't one announced, is there?"

"We just did.  Come on, Lil—treat you to a butterbeer.  Up to breaking a few rules once in a while?"

Lily laughed, shaking away the rest of the boys' fears.  "I'm a prefect, and I shouldn't allow this, but—oh, holy Merlin, it's Christmas.  I'll be ready in a few seconds."

Sirius started breathing again as soon as Lily left the room.  "James, that was the best save you've ever done.  Brilliant.  Do you think she knows?"

James shrugged.  "That's what I'm about to find out."

On the other hand, Lily wasn't extremely stupid.  She knew perfectly well that James had only invited her to Hogsmeade so as to get her mind off what happened in the common room, and that he was intending to see if she suspected anything about their illegally trying to become Animagi.  And, for her part, she was going to have a little fun.  Actually, knowing Lily, more than a little.

With a wicked flash in her eye, she slipped back downstairs, hearing the boys whisper frantically.  Quietly, she popped back into the torchlight.

"I just wanted to know—do I have to wear school robes or not?"

All four of the boys jumped at least three inches high, and James could hardly force his voice to work normally.  "Oh—don't bother with those—then they'll know you're from Hogwarts, and, well, you're technically not supposed to be there.  Just wear something normal."

Lily smiled.  "Me?  Normal?  Since when do those two words come into the same sentence?"

Sirius lounged across two chairs and a table.  "Hey, James, we'd better get the cloak and stuff together.  It's snowing, too, in case you didn't notice."

James shrugged.  "I noticed.  So?"

"So you'll need to wear something warm."

"Oh, right.  Lil, you get a cloak or something; we'll meet you down here in a few seconds."

"All right."  Noiselessly, Lily vanished back up the stairs, and Sirius frowned.  

"I don't like the fact that she can move so quiet."

"Do you think anyone does?"  
"No."

"Exactly.  Come on, we'd better get some money together."

"All right."  Groaning, the four boys, waving smoke out of their faces, trooped up the stairs to their dormitory.  

Lily was rummaging through her things for the black cloak Severus had given her way back in their third year.  But when she slung it around her shoulders, she found she had shot up at least four inches since then.  Half annoyed, half proud, she pointed her wand at her cape.

"Productio!"

Immediately, the black crushed velvet lengthened to her ankles, and the black lace with the familiar drooping vines as trim grew so as to fit around the larger cloak.  It was a great help to know this charm, Lily reflected.

However, she quickly unfastened the ebony buckle and searched through her trunk until she came up with a black turtleneck and long black pants.  They were the warmest things she had, and they were also good for getting out of sight quickly in darker places; since the snow wasn't letting much sunlight through, it was going to be easy to vanish.  Lily had an odd feeling that she would be vanishing sometime soon; that her innocent ramble would break apart and that the boys would be using several Memory Charms.  So this would be rather helpful.

She only ran the brush through her hair several times before letting it hang over her shoulders to cover her ears, which she knew would be freezing in no time flat.  Letting the hood hang down, she picked up a small bag for any purchases she might make or receive, and dropped her money-bag and wand inside.  Eyes a bit alight, she left her dormitory for the common room.

The boys and she arrived downstairs at exactly the same time, and by the looks of their attire, they also were expecting it to be more than just a little cold.  Peter was resembling something in the Forbidden Forest that had rolled in a honeycomb and then in a pile of fur; Remus was wrapped tightly in a light brown cape and a red sweater.  Sirius and James were almost identical; they both had plain black cloaks with hoods hanging down their backs, and their feet were in black boots that disappeared under pants cuffs.  Except for the fact that Sirius was wearing a jacket underneath his cape and James a navy blue sweater, they could have been mistaken for one another, if one could forget the unavoidable messy hair of Mr. Potter, which one couldn't. They grinned at each other as Lily came down the stairs.  Pulling out the Invisibility Cloak, Sirius flung it to Lily.

"Oh, this nifty little thing again?"

James grinned.  "It's useful, all right.  Come on, this goes over all of us."  
"It covers five people?"  
"It covers four."

"Barely."

"Remus!"

As it turned out, the cloak did cover five people, though the sight of several bodiless feet gliding through the corridors was a bit suspicious.  But Abigail, the caretaker's cat, didn't show up to sniff them out and vanish for Filch, the caretaker, so they reached a relatively deserted corridor unnoticed by anyone.  

They stopped right in front of a statue of a hump-backed, one-eyed witch.  She had had two eyes, but then again, Sirius and James attended this school, and her stone eye was currently in the sewer systems.  They had ground it up and dumped it in the kitchen's large flour bag a week ago, when they were bored, and had also laughed themselves sick to find several students choking on slivers of stone in their bread.

Lily frowned.  "What on earth?"

James grinned at her as he pulled his wand out and tapped the witch with it.  "Dissendium!"

Immediately, the hump on the witch's back swung open to reveal a corridor.  Lily's eyes opened wide, and the boys grinned to see her astonishment.

"What—how—?"

"It's one of six passages out of here.  Look—straight to Hogsmeade.  We discovered it four years ago, to be exact."

Lily was confused.  "How—when—?"

Sirius couldn't suppress a self-satisfied, smug grin.  "It was sort of an accident.  I was looking up words in the Latin dictionary to use instead of 'darn' or other words like that, so I found 'Dissendium', so one day James here—" he clapped James on the shoulder, hard—"decided to trip me, and I fell against Clara here."  Affectionately, he patted the stone witch. 

"[i]Clara?[/i]"

"Yep.  Agatha was too Puritany, Agnes was—"

Rolling his eyes, James cut in.  "Lil, don't get him started.  We'd better be going.  Ready?"

Lily nodded.  "Sure.  I'm game."

"Very good.  Come on, that butterbeer's waiting!"

Sirius, Remus, Peter, and Lily didn't need another persuasion tactic used, so, after jumping into the tunnel and heading forward by the light of James' and Lily's wands, it barely took them forty-five minutes by Peter's watch to get to a dead end in the tunnel.

Lily frowned.  "A dead end.  Wonderful, really.  Look—there's Honeydukes right to the left of that clump of dirt!  And just a few centimeters to the right, ladies and gentlemen, we have the world-famous Three Broomsticks, located just beside the millimeter-long tree root—"

James shoved her not so lightly.  "Lily, shut up."  Ignoring her crossed arms and slitty-eyed glare, he reached for something overhead, and, seconds later, had pulled down an iron ring of sorts.  He couldn't help but look especially smug at Lily's astonished countenance, but he didn't forget to throw the Invisibility Cloak over her when he boosted her up.

Lily's head emerged in a sort of basement, surrounded with boxes and crates of somethings.  She quickly had to duck out of sight, however, as a boy about her age, rather horizontally gifted, tramped down a staircase, and, grumbling, picked up a box about a foot square, mumbling:  "I hate little kids!  It isn't my fault that that brat spilled all of the Bloodsucking Chocolates, so why should I pay for it?"  Frowning and scowling, he made his way upstairs, from which a sound of chatter could be heard. 

When he was quite gone, James, Sirius, and the rest emerged from the trapdoor.  Lily made a move to hand the Invisibility Cloak back to James, but he thrust it back at her impatiently.

"Keep it.  You'd better—we're better at blending in than you are."

Lily sniffed.  "Oh, are you?  We'll just see about that, then!"  Untangling her arms from the Invisibility Cloak, she threw it back at James, and, making sure the ebony buckle at her throat was fastened securely, she threw a snide glance over her shoulder at the boys, took a few steps forward, and vanished.

The four almost yelled with surprise; luckily, however, they sustained themselves, as they really weren't supposed to be in this cellar at all.  

On closer investigation, that is, stepping closer to the boxes she had vanished behind, she was gone, with no trace left behind her.  Puzzled, the boys took a glance at each other, then dived behind the crates as well, in search of her.

Twenty minutes later, when they emerged into the bright sunlight glaring on a packed coat of snow, and after their eyes had stopped blinking continually, the first thing their eyes landed on was Lily, seated on a stone bench next to a goblin reading a newspaper, examining her wand closely.  When they approached, she set the wand down, clucking a bit.

"Look at your robes!  Where were you, the inside of a vacuum cleaner?"

James scowled.  "Looking for you, Evans."  
Lily smirked.  "I told you I could blend in well.  Satisfied?"

James sniffed, but Sirius, eyes sort of ablaze, asked Lily if she could teach him how to do that before catching James' murderous glance.  But then Sirius jerked his head in Peter's direction, and James immediately apologized to Lily.  Peter hadn't been able to get rid of the tail, and it was now hiding under his robes.

When the wind picked up, they were none too unhappy about retreating into the Three Broomsticks and sending Peter off to buy their drinks.  Lily was a bit disgruntled at discovering that the pub didn't serve any type of coffee, but free butterbeer wasn't anything one could turn down lightly.  So she didn't.

Remus pulled Lily's chair out for her, and, hiding a smirk, she slid into it lightly, shaking shifts of snowflakes out of her hair.  Several Christmas trees were placed around the room at intervals, giving the place quite a festive, warm, welcoming look.  It was packed beyond belief, and the single waitress at the counter was filling orders frantically.

Peter returned with some change, which he handed to James.  "Madame Rosmerta said it'd be awhile."

"Oh."  James stuffed his change inside a handy pocket.  "Rosie?"

"Yeah, her," Peter shrugged.  

Lily would have asked who Rosmerta or Rosie or any other names she happened to have amassed was, but since a girl about nineteen with a rather full front and turquoise high heels had just walked up to the table next to them with a tray of drinks, she figured that part out for herself.  But then James' stretching arm blocked her view.

"So, Lily, what do you want for Christmas?"

Lily shrugged, fiddling with a loose thread in the tablecloth.  "I don't know.  I thought maybe drawing pencils or something would be nice—but then again, there're always books and candles—but there's always incense—"

She broke off as she caught Sirius' amused stare.  "What?"

He couldn't help snorting a bit.  "Do you know, Lily, that you're the only one that doesn't immediately hit on a diamond ring or something like that when James Potter asks you what you want for Christmas."

"And that would be a bad thing?"

Shrugging, Sirius clapped her on the shoulder.  "Nope.  I rather think he likes people not taking advantage of his money."

James hissed at Sirius to shut up just as Madame Rosmerta clicked over to their table, holding a tray.

"Four large butterbeers?"

Sirius took the tray.  "Mine!"

Laughing, Remus pulled Sirius back into his seat.  "Hey, only one!"

"No fair!"

"Yes fair!  It's not your money, is it?"  
Sirius had nothing to say to that.

"Ha!"

Lily broke in.  She hadn't forgotten that she intended to make the boys squirm a bit.

"So, what were you four doing in the common room?"

Immediately, their eyes shifted.  "Nothing important."  
"Well, Peter's still got a tail—and you looked as if it were important."

James had obviously lost all common sense, as he tried appealing to Lily to be merciful.

"Lil, please, don't tell McGonagall or Dumbledore."

Eyes wide with innocence, Lily turned her head to look him full in the face.  

"Well, why shouldn't I?  It'd only be asking her to remove Peter's—erm—addition—but, really, it's not as if some sort of Animagi transformation went horribly wrong, is it?"

Those four couldn't keep a secret if their lives depended on it, she thought dryly as they tried unsuccessfully to hide their discomfort by spilling their butterbeer at the same time and ducking under the table to retrieve the bottles, immediately knocking their heads against each others' and now sitting on the ground, holding aching skulls.  It was all Lily could do not to laugh, and even then, if they'd had the security of mind to look up, they'd have seen that she knew what she knew, which, all in all, was more than they knew, if they'd bothered to think about it.

Lily noticed afterwards that none of the boys even hinted towards a fight, not even James, and that when she goaded them horrifically, with bait James usually couldn't resist.  This was rather amusing for her, though to the boys it was terrifying.  "I own you" was the phrase she first thought of when she tried to put a name to this situation.

They got back to Hogwarts around four in the afternoon; Lily was thankful for her cloak and for the underground tunnel, for the wind mixed with a few flakes had turned into a mediocre snowstorm by the time they set off for Hogwarts with two bottle of butterbeer under each arm.  When they got into the warm common room, the first thing they did, after throwing off the stuffy Invisibility Cloak, was to proceed to the nearest bathroom and turn on the hot water.  Very hot water.  

Lily, knowing Remus was a prefect, took her bathing suit with her as a precaution when she stepped into the prefect's bathroom; the fourth door to the left of Boris the Bewildered's statue on the fifth floor.  Slipping into the rather more than primitive suit and knotting a towel around her waist, she headed straight for the handle that spouted tiny bubbles the size of Eva's favorite diamond stud earrings; and they sparkled just like stars did.  She infinitely preferred this kind over the pink footballs, and, pulling a small lever in the wall that dropped the level of the pool to a good nine feet, she grinned as the sparkling bubbles quickly reached the edge of the basin.  When the pool-sized tub was filled to the brim, the door opened abruptly and Remus walked in.

Almost instinctively, he turned around, flinging his hands up to his eyes, and Lily snorted. 

"Remus, dear, this swimsuit is almost what they wore in the 1890s.  You can turn around."

He frowned, but nevertheless shut the door.  "What did they wear back then?"

Lily laughed loudly.  "Skirts that went down to their ankles and sleeves to their elbows.  Black.  All black."

He grinned, throwing off his own robes and informing her that he'd also taken the precaution of a suit.  "Yours is practically that.  Only it doesn't have a skirt."

"But it's black and has sleeves."

"True."  Tying her hair behind her head in a long, auburn ponytail, Lily dove into the water from the smallish diving board at the deepest end.  Quickly, she came up to the sound of applauding.  Remus was standing on the shallow end, grinning.

"Nice!  Where'd you learn to do that?"

"It's just a dive."  Lily shrugged.

"There is that," he agreed.  "But still, it was good!"

She climbed out, dived in again, and came up on the other end of the pool, with Remus tapping her shoulder.

"What?"

"I've got to ask you something."

"Shoot."

"All right, then."

He squinted at a few sparkles in the bubbles, then got down to what he wanted to say.

"Lily?"

"Yeah?"

"We've been wondering lately—erm—that is—"  He scratched his ear, then looked up abruptly.  Lily had a feeling she knew what was coming.

"Do you absolutely hate James?"

Lily's eyebrows mounted her forehead, vanishing into her wet hair and shooting straight through the ceiling.  "Where'd that come from?"  It was definitely not the question she'd expected.

"No—seriously.  Do you hate him?"

"No…why'd you think that?"

"Oh, no reason.  It's just that you two can't be around each other without tearing your respective jugular veins out through your toes."

Lily snorted.  "Remus, dear, the jugular veins are in the neck, I believe."

He shrugged.  "You'd find a way.  Well, that's good."

"That I could find a way to tear his—"

"No!"  He interrupted quickly.  "That you don't hate him."

"Ah."  She narrowed her eyes.  "Did he ask you to ask me that?"

While she retied the rubber band around her hair, and while she was treading water with the band in her teeth, the door to the bathroom opened again and the rest of the boys stepped inside.  Lily ducked underwater, berating herself for it a minute afterwards.  There was no reason to do that; it's not as if you've never seen them before!

James, Peter, and Sirius tramped in loudly, shaking off shoes so that they flew in high bounds through the air, one of Sirius' landing quite close to the edge of the pool.  Remus raised a hand and waved.

"Thought you'd never get here.  I was just talking to—" he waved a hand in Lily's general direction, then stopped as he couldn't see her.  "Never mind."

The other boys, after taking off their own robes and jumping into the water, came pretty close to landing on top of Lily, but she managed to dodge.  It was only when James did a cannonball that was almost a bellyflop and landed right in front of Lily, and opened his eyes when he was six inches away from her, that both of them surfaced, sputtering.

"Hey!  What're you doing here?"

"I'm a prefect, too, in case you didn't know?"

"Oops.  Sorry!"  Taking advantage of the fact that she had just folded her arms, he reached behind her, grabbed the top of her head, and jerked her underwater.  Again, she came up snorting water through her nose.

"James Potter!"

"What?"  His face assumed a completely innocent and I-had-nothin-whatsoever-to-do-with-the-fact-that-you're-snorting-water-through-your-nose-and-hacking-up-various-sparkly-bubbles expression, which quickly vanished when Lily aimed a rather nasty kick at his solarplex.

"Hey!"  Trying to grab her foot, he grasped at empty air, and the next second, she had shot over to the other end of the pool and was resting her arms on the side lazily.

"What?"

"Someone's dead!"

The rest of the afternoon they spent in the pool, dunking each other and seeing who could swim the most laps without coming up for air.  No one was surprised when Lily won.


	44. The complete transformation and Christma...

Dinner was wonderful, as usual.  The Great Hall was filled with the usual Christmas decorations, and, emptier than usual, with only five Gryffindors, three Ravenclaws, six Hufflepuffs, and four Slytherins, and Filch, Dumbledore, and the Hogwarts ghosts.  The house-elves hadn't made as much food as they usually did; all of the food was situated at one end of each table, where everyone sat.

Lily reached for a baked potato, then remembered what Remus had asked her in the prefect's bathroom.  She turned to her neighbor.  

"James."

"What?"  He looked up quickly.

"Where did you get the idea that I hate you?"

He squirmed a bit.  "Well—you always hate to be around me—you never seem to want to get along—what am I supposed to think?"

Lily sat back in her chair, slouching.  He had a point.  On the other hand, however much she might get ticked at him at certain times, she didn't hate him.   She didn't hate anybody, come to that.  Not Serena—she didn't feel that Serena was worthy of the time spent to hate her.  And there really was no one else that came to mind that she couldn't stand.  Severus and Lucius were her good friends, though they were slimy gits to the rest of Hogwarts, excluding the Slytherins.  Professor Trelawney was a nutty grasshopper that drove her up the wall millions of times in an hour and a half, but when she got right down to it, she didn't hate her, she despised her.  There was an oh-so-subtle difference that she couldn't pin down, but it was there.  

"Oh—I don't know.  I definitely don't hate you—hate is a stronger word than you know.  You annoy me beyond words much of the time, but you're not the least of my problems."

He smiled.  "Thanks.  I was kinda worried—it's just that I don't know how it happens, but we're always fighting, no matter what."

"That's your own fault."

"Hey!  It is not!  I—"

To James' left, Sirius groaned loudly.  "They're fighting _again!"_

Lily couldn't help it.  She started to giggle loudly.

That night, Lily couldn't sleep.  She was so used to giggles from the other beds going on far into the night, and it was hard for her to drop off.  Sighing loudly, Lily picked up _Very good, Jeeves!, and slipped downstairs after throwing on a long, dark dressing gown.  Down in the common room, she placed herself on a largeish sofa with a rather high back, opened her book, and began to read._

Before long, however, she tensed, raised her head, and listened with all her might.  Lily recognized those sounds.

Padding, stomping, and whispering seemed to follow the four boys around at night, along with an Invisibility Cloak.  So, come to that, did Peter's clumsiness.

"I told you not to step on my feet!"

"I've said I'm sorry!"

"Yeah, well, how you can manage to step on my feet when you're in front of me is more than I can fathom.  Will you keep your feet in one place?"

"I'm sorry!"

"Well, you'd better be."

"Sirius, shut up.  We don't know if Lily's still up or not."

Hidden behind the sofa, Lily snickered to herself.

"You mean your girlfriend?"

"Sirius, shut up!  She isn't, and you know that perfectly well!"

"Well, you two seem to be spending an awful lot of time together, that's all."

"Yeah—what was it, Remus?—tearing each other's jugular veins out through our toes."

"And you were the one that begged me to find out if she hated you or not."

"Is there something wrong with that?"

"Nope,"  Sirius' cheerful voice agreed.  "I want to be godfather, okay?"

"_What?"  James' enraged whisper bordered on a scream._

"Don't panic, James!  You really don't want her coming down here."

"I happen to know that!  What the bloody intestine-covered antlers do you mean, you want to be the godfather!?"

"What I said!  I want to be your son's godfather!"

"Sirius, shut up."

"You didn't—"

"I know I didn't deny it!  I don't need to, all right?"

"Sure.  Fine.  Whatever."  Sirius gave in.  "Let's just get out of here, all right?"

"Suits us," the three other boys replied at the same time.

With that, they slid out of the common room and down the corridors, out of the entrance hall, and onto the grounds.  Once outside, they discarded the Invisibility Cloak, leaving Sirius to hold it while they raced towards the Whomping Willow.  Lily glanced up at the sky, and she noticed that the moon wasn't full yet, though it was more than pretty close.  Tomorrow, she judged, or the day after, it would be complete.

Keeping close to the borders of the Forbidden Forest, she watched the four boys stop in front of the Whomping Willow.  Peter stopped, nearly frozen in a sort of fear.  They others were getting impatient.

"Peter, come on!  It's not going to kill you!"

"We'll get you out of it if something wrong stays.  You want to help Moony, don't you?"

Remus frowned.  "Moony?"

"Yep.  You're Moony now.  I think I told you that before, though.  Just go, Peter!"

Peter gulped one last time, then closed his eyes and, after a few moments, started to shrink.  Lily narrowed her eyes as she saw a small rat dash across the lawn and push the knot on the Willow.  It froze instantly, and the boys made a dash for the hole in the ground near the roots.

Lily wasted no time, but followed quickly.  She slid into the underground corridor and followed the winding earth walls and the whispered whoops as they headed for the Shrieking Shack.

Three feet in front of the door to the Shack, Lily stopped, and inched her way towards a crack, peering through.  Her eyebrows mounted her forehead as she saw an assortment of animals inside, standing in front of a mirror; the rat she'd seen before, a large, shaggy, black dog, and an almost silvery stag, whose fur glimmered in the moonlight that came through the cracks in the dilapidated old house.  Remus, an expression of joy and excitedness all over his countenance, was sitting on the edge of the bed, grinning from ear to ear.

"You really did it!  I don't know how you did, but—oh, you're wonderful!

Lily shook her head several times to clear the thickness that was clouding her brain.  Animagi.  _Animagi.  Her friends had managed to become Animagi.  __Unregistered Animagi.   __Illegal Animagi.  This was a serious offense.  An expellable offense.  She hadn't thought that they'd actually manage it, Peter being Peter.  But they obviously had.  Lily pressed herself against the wall in a sort of numb state of shock.  __What if the school authorities find out?  _

The last thing she wanted was the boys thrown out of school, even if she and James did fight all the time.  They were her friends—yes, even James—he hadn't spilled her secret about the Alendoren Cove to anyone, had he?  All right then, she told herself, you've got no right telling anyone this.  This is their secret.  And for all Lily was concerned, it would stay _their secret.  Not hers, not Professor McGonagall's, and not Dumbledore's.  Or anyone else's, for that matter._

Lily kept her word to herself and her friends.  It wasn't terribly difficult to keep it a secret from school authorities; it seemed like you would have to be thicker than concrete mixed with raisins to not be able to keep anything hidden.  True, Dumbledore was a different story, what with the feeling he gave one as if he could read minds, but if one just stayed out of his way, one was fine.  

Two days after the boys' final transformation practice was complete, Remus did indeed vanish.  But that night, Lily sat at her window, one foot tucked underneath her, watching a large black shaggy dog, a silvery, spindly stag, and a small beetling speck she knew to be a rat romping around with a large werewolf.  She almost wished she could join in when she heard several growls that couldn't stand for anything but laughter.

Christmas Eve was spent downstairs in the common room.  The boys knew, or thought they knew, that nights spent by herself in the girls' dormitory tower were terribly lonely, so they had pooled as many blankets, covers, and pillows together as they could and dragged them into the common room, creating five makeshift beds that were stacked at least two inches high.  True, they'd had to strip almost every bed in the Gryffindor Tower, but, James added, with a wave of his hand, the house-elves would be delighted to clean their mess up.  

So, at about ten o'clock at night, they were sitting around the fire, each in their respective stacks of comforters, with an almost full bottle of butterbeer next to each of them and an interesting sort of bread the house-elves had prepared for the next day; _Stollen, it was called; Lily recognized it as a celebrated German winter holiday food.  It was a sort of cake-like bread made with raisins and topped with quite a bit of powdered sugar; also quite undescribable.  _

Lily was leaning against a fender on the fireplace; Sirius and Peter were sprawled all over the floor and all five beds; Remus was lying on his stomach, resting his chin on a fist, and James was sitting tailor-style on his pillow.  They had just finished laughing at a narrow escape Sirius had had while bringing the butterbeer back from Hogsmeade; he had run into Professor McGonagall and dropped the bottles.  The story he had given her was that one of the house-elves was currently undergoing severe depression and supplying himself with butterbeer, and Sirius had been asked to confiscate it.  Without giving Professor McGonagall a chance to open her mouth to take points away from Gryffindor, Sirius had given her a cheery "Merry Christmas!" and vanished around the corner.  At the moment, he was entertaining his friends with an imitation of Professor McGonagall's face when he freely handed out the information about a drunk house-elf.  And for some reason, the image of a reeling, swaying, hiccupping green bat with tennis-ball eyes kept popping up in front of Lily's eyes.

Peter dropped off at about ten-fifteen; Remus' head was sinking quickly, as this was his first day back after the Shrieking Shack; he was exhausted.  And Sirius had accompanied him back to the Shrieking Shack while James had to take Peter back to the castle, so, quite soon, only James, and Lily were left awake.

Lily suppressed a yawn.  "I don't want to think about what McGonagall might think if she came in here and saw us."

"Why?  We're not doing anything disgusting or illegal."

Lily smirked at the word 'illegal'.  "She'd find a way."

Falsely, James gasped and held a hand to his throat.  "Lily Evans, talking rudely about a _teacher?  The world is coming to an end!"_

Lily scowled.  "Thanks to you, my world is going to come to an end quicker than I ever thought it would."

"Oh, really?"  He stemmed his fists in his sides.  "Pray explain."

Snorting, Lily pulled her necklace out of her robes.  "What do you call this?"

"Hey now, that's not my fault!"

"It isn't?  It's your fault that I got locked in that dungeon in first year and came out with this!"

"So?"

"And it's you that would have gotten both of us killed if I had left you alone with Tom for just a minute more."

"Oh."  James dropped his head.  "True. But unknowingly!"

"We'd still be dead, genius!  Not that I'd mind, but I don't' think I'd like to go without the sensation of eating."

He pushed himself up to sit back on his heels.  "Lily, I want to talk to you."

"You are."

"I'm laughing myself sick.  No, really, this is serious."

"I'm not stopping you.  In case, of course, you say something I don't want to hear, in which case I will stop you.  But proceed."

"All right."  He shifted his balance.  "Lily, it's about—well, you, really.  Remember when you got hit over the head last summer and had to get stitches?"  
"Yes."  
"Well, the thing that hit you on the head—when I picked it up from the bottom of the pool—it—"

"It what?  Come out with it already!  You have no idea how maddening this is!"

"All right."  James got straight to the point.  


	45. A talk before Christmas, the Dark Mark's...

"It was some sort of magical message."

Lily could make nothing of that.  "That makes sense!"

"Sorry.  No—I mean, I picked it up off of the bottom of the pool and fumbled with it—and then one side burst open.  It was some sort of message I didn't understand now, but I think I do now."

Lily was still completely confused.  "You mean Sirius threw a bit of parchment inside a cement elephant and threw it over Amanda's fence?"

"No!"  James slipped his hand inside his pocket, pulling out a scrap of paper.  Unfolding it, he read:

_"L.,___

_Developments here are rapid.  MOM attacking.  Tom won't ask for help.  Can you do something?  Battle raging.  Come quickly—Lith."_

He looked up.  "That must have been the day the Ministry of Magic first attacked the Alendoren Cove.  And your criminal's fiancée sent you this. I think an owl must have dropped it."

Lily was musing.  "That's it, of course.  I only wonder why she didn't send a regular letter."

"Too easy for anyone else to read."

"True.  But you read this one."

"Right.  I guess so.  She must have been really flustered."

"Must have been."

They stayed up late that night, talking about the Alendoren Cove and Tom's battles—James wanted to hear over and over again the story about the first battle Lily attended; it seemed to interest him quite a bit, though for what reason Lily didn't know.  They had to keep shooting careful glances over at their snoring companions, to make sure they were still asleep and not listening.  James wondered at this the first time Lily had done so.

"You don't want them to hear this?"

"No."  Lily was firm.

"Why not?"

"I don't want this spread all over school, can't you understand?  I might be expelled!"

"Not to mention arrested."

"Oh, right."  Lily waved that away.  "No, but seriously, if you four talk about this amongst yourselves, you've got more of a chance of being overheard."

James stroked his chin thoughtfully.  "You have a point.  Still, they're my best friends—"

"And Eva's mine.  And she doesn't know all that I've told you."

"I see.  But still—"

"James Potter."

"Okay, okay.  Point taken.  But what do you think would happen if anyone like Dumbledore found out?"  
"I'd probably be arrested."

"How bad would that be for you?"

"It would be most disturbing."

James gaped.  "Really, Lily, there are over a million red-hot adjectives in the English language, and the words you choose to describe your arrest and placement in Azkaban are 'most disturbing.'  Honestly, can't you think of anything better?"

"Cataclysmical, then."

"Humph."

"You've got something against my choice of words?"

"Nooo…_never..."_

"Good."

"Because you do?"

"Exactly."

"But—"  James picked at a loose thread in one of the blankets—"but, Lily, you really can't go down there again—it's dangerous, and you know it."

Lily tossed her head, flinging the waist-length auburn hair everywhere.  "I don't care what happens to me, don't you know that?  And, besides, who would care if I did die?  Father'd get over it, and I don't think Petunia would die of a heart attack herself."

James shrugged.  "Well—I know—er—well, Eva'd mind quite a bit, and Amanda, and those Slytherin gits—and—well,--erm—all four of us Marauders would.  You know that."  
"To be honest, no, I don't."

"You should."

"Um."  She suppressed a yawn.  
James glanced over at her quizzically.  "You tired?"  
"_No; at two in the morning I'm __always as fit as a pineapple in the freezer."_

"I like the simile.  But seriously, do you want to go to sleep?"

"I wouldn't mind that, no," Lily admitted."  
"Okay then.  See you in the morning."

"Night."

"Night."

Lily rolled over and pulled her blankets up to her shoulders.  Then, apparently thinking of something new, she sat back up.

"James?"

"Hum?  What?"  He opened his eyes lazily.

"Merry Christmas Eve."  
James grinned and flopped over on his back.  "You, too."

"Thanks."

The next morning, the boys were rudely awakened by Minky's effective poking at Lily's request.  However, when they sat up in indignation, the only person they saw was Lily, sitting cross-legged on her pillow, the black jazz pants almost covered with strands of dark red.  She grinned when she looked up and closed her book.

"Hullo! Merry Christmas!"

Sirius scowled.  "You woke us up like that?"

"Yes and no."

"Pray explain."

"I asked Minky to do it for me."  
"Umph."  Sirius groaned.  "Keep that in mind.  If ever angry at Lily Evans, ask house-elf to wake her up."

"What?  What's wrong with the way she did it?"

"She poked her fingers almost inside my rib cage!"

"If I had done that and had been angry at you, I would have gotten inside your rib cage and your heart would be a shapeless mass at the base of Gryffindor Tower.  Be happy."

Sirius and Remus sat up quickly.  "I am!" they grinned in unison.

Wiping sleep out of his eyes, Peter sat up lethargically.  "Mornin'."

"Merry Christmas!" the three friends replied. 

James grinned as he walked into the common room from the bathroom.  "Exactly.  What they said.  Morning, everyone!  Ooh, presents!" he exclaimed as he caught sight of the bundles piled up on a couch.

Lily smiled.  "I didn't dig in first—thought that would be kind of rude."

"It would have been, too.  Come on; first one there is a rotten egg plastered on a cat's privates!"

Lily decided to ignore that comment.  However, it didn't prevent her from picking up a small package sent to her from her father.

Wrapped in green paper with small blue ornaments on it, the present was flat and square.  Lily removed the paper as best she could without tearing it.  She smiled when she saw the contents.  A new sketchbook and pack of pencils.  She had complained, last time she was home, that she ran out of space in her book too quickly.

Petunia had sent her a pair of earrings; fool's gold with false diamonds.  Lily was touched at the thought, though she didn't especially care for the earrings much.  Gold didn't appeal to her as much as silver did, still, it was nice of Petunia to think of her.

Peter's present was a singularly uninteresting one.  Owl Treats and a packet of Sugar Quills.  James' was much more interesting.  A small model of Hogwarts surrounded by the most lifelike Forbidden Forest and encased by a crystal globe sat on her lap.  She had mentioned to him once how nice it would be to be able to draw Hogwarts, but that she couldn't because she never was close enough or as far from it as she needed to be. This small model included every detail, including the cracked windowsill in the Divination room, and it was small enough for her to get the general shape, size, and placement of all of the towers.  She shot a grateful glance over to James.  "Thank you!"

"No problem. Like it?"

Lily smiled.  "Of course.  Did you make it?"

He laughed.  "Turn it over."

With rather more care than was necessary, Lily turned the glass globe over.  On the small stand of carved bronze, something was written into the bronze.  _A Marauders Selection Original Masterpiece.__  Made by James Potter._

She smiled.  "Thanks! This is—well, it's wonderful!"

"I know.  I made it."

"Oh, hush!"

"What'll you pay me?"

"Potter!"

He backed away from what promised to be a most interesting fight rather quickly.  "Say, before we completely empty this pile, anyone up for Minky's hot chocolate?"

A unanimous "Sure!" echoed from his four friends, with noticeably more enthusiasm than echoes normally have.  James grinned and stood up, heading for his dormitory.  Seconds later, a something invisible opened the portrait door and sped downstairs, where it slipped four mugs, two pitchers of hot chocolate, about ten éclairs, and a good number of sausages into a box specially designed for this purpose.  His friends were delighted.

"Oh, wonderful!  Éclairs!"

"And two pitchers!"

"And pig guts!"

"Sirius!"

"Okay, okay.  No bacon?"

"Prongs, this is wonderful!"

The whole common room fell silent.  Lily was the first to speak. 

"Peter, what'd you just call James?"

"Er—"  
"You said 'Prongs'.  Quite clearly.  I heard you."

"Er—"

"Peter."

"Er—"

"PETER!  A response that makes sense is not illegal, you know!"

James cut in.  "Lil, never mind.  He just calls me that because I headbutted him in the stomach once and he swore I had pointy antlers.  Leave off already."  
Lily wasn't mollified.  "Liar."

"Lily!"

"That's the weakest thing I've ever heard.  Liar."

"Lily, it's no big deal!  It's just a nickname.  Come on, you haven't opened Sirius' present yet!"

Lily allowed herself to be distracted, though she would have loved to pursue the topic.  Sirius' present turned out to be a journal whose contents she could erase whenever she left it alone, which, Lily reflected, was a useful thing to have.  

Besides those gifts, she received several hundred books, it seemed like, a few articles of winter clothing, i.e:  scarves and gloves.  People seemed to have this odd obsession with giving her black velvet gloves reaching to her elbows.  Not that she minded; quite the contrary!  It was nice to have five pairs!  

Otherwise, her largest present was several lengths of black velvet.  Lily had written her father, asking for material to make herself something while she was hopelessly bored, and he sent her several needles, patterns from Madam Malkin's, and black thread, along with quite a few yards of the black velvet.  Lily had several things in mind, including a dress she could move around in while following the Marauders or at the Alendoren Cove.  Then again, a riding habit wouldn't be that bad.  She'd have to think about it.

Her last present—well, wasn't a present.  It was a letter, written on sheet of silver parchment and dated from the Alendoren Cove.

_Lily,_

_I'm trying to think of a mark or something that would symbolize my army.  If you're ever hopelessly bored, could you come up with something?  I've got something for Christmas for you, too, but I don't dare send it by owl.  Too risky.  Come down here tonight at around eleven your time?_

_--Tom _

Lily smiled and pushed the boys away, who were all trying to read the letter, obviously assuming that Severus or Lucius wrote it.  After the tenth "Lil!  Let us see!", she finally got fed up, though.

"Prongs, keep your mind in your own business, all right?"

He instantly shut up.

That night, after managing to eat as little as possible of the Christmas feast, Lily was rummaging through her trunk and her brain, trying to come up with something Tom would like to have as a symbol.  Sighing, she threw aside several more pairs of school robes and dislodged some of her old birthday presents.  Her eyes lit up for a moment and she sifted through them, looking for one thing she knew she had been given by Eva some time ago.  Seconds later, she held it up to the torchlight, grinned wickedly, pulled her necklace out, and hit it against the stone wall.  Instantly, she landed right in front of Tom, who was sitting on one of the rocks in the cove, staring over the waves.

Right in front of Tom being in the water, that was where she ended up.  Spluttering a bit, and with Tom's help, she managed to crawl onto his rock.

"Well?  Did you get my owl?"  
"I did."

"You have any bright ideas?"  
"I did."

"Tell me!  Please!"

"All right."  Lily brought out a tiara from under her robes.  It was the old one Eva had given her; silver with a skull in front, from whose mouth a snake issued.  Tom's eyes lit up.

"Lily!  That's brilliant!  I love it!"  He took it from her hands and examined it closely.  "Wonderful!"

Lily grinned.  "Thanks."

He tucked it inside his own robes.  "Mind if I borrow this for a day or so?"

"I don't mind."

"Good.  I've got your present at Litharelen's mansion, by the way.  Come with me?"

"Sure!"  

Quickly, they dived off of their rock, into the dewy, iridescent watery mass, down to the beautiful castle-like palace Litharelen called home.

It took them next to no time to reach her home, both of them being wonderful swimmers. They landed in front of large, beautifully sculptured gates, and, casually unlocking them and swinging one open, Tom bowed to Lily.   
"My lady."   
"I wouldn't exactly call me that…"

"Tough. I already did. Come on inside—your present's with Lith."   
"With Lith—that rhymed."   
Tom grinned and spread his arms out wide. "Ladies and gentlemen, you are now gazing at the Poetic Genius! Autographs will be given after the appreciative dinner!"   
Lily couldn't help but laugh. It was just too amusing—an outlawed criminal, a poetic genius.   
They walked inside—well, Tom did. Lily was swimming. She found it more amusing than walking—plus you couldn't walk very well in iridescent dew. Yes, Tom could do that, but then again, he was part elf-nymph. Lily suddenly found herself wondering what male elf-nymphs were called. Elf-sprites? She didn't think so…   
But she didn't have that much time to ponder on it. Litharelen, in her mermaid-like form with a dark green tunic thrown over her, was sitting on the edge of a fountain's basin, staring dreamily into the water. She jumped up, however, when she saw Lily and Tom approaching.   
"Lily! I haven't seen you in ages!" She hugged the fourteen-year-old tightly and then looked up to her fiancé. "Or you, Tom. I've been down here by myself mostly." Litharelen's beautiful face was more than a bit disappointed.   
Tom smiled at her. "Don't worry, Lith. The Ministry's nowhere close to catching me."   
"Tom—I just don't know—I just don't know."   
He cupped his hand underneath her chin and raised it slightly. "Lith, whatever happens, they're not killing me. You've got to trust me on that. And they're not getting you, either."   
Lily made several waves in the fountain's contents as Tom lightly kissed his fiancée. Then, letting her go, he seemed to remember Lily.   
"Lith—I gave you Lily's present to hold for me. Do you have it with you?"   
Litharelen's crimson cheeks were reverting to their original color as she pulled a small bottle out of her tunic, a bottle that glistened like a diamond. It itself seemed to be made out of a diamond; the small cork at the opening was of the same green stone with the swirling silver mist inside as Litharelen's necklace. She held it out to Tom, who pressed it into Lily's hand.   
"Lily, this is for you—it's made out of crystallized litaleter. If you pour water inside here, it'll immediately acquire all the qualities of a healing potion. It's very useful in times of war."   
Lily's face lit up and she hugged Tom around the waist. "Tom! I don't know how to say thank you for this!"   
"Don't," he advised. "I'm actually giving this to you in case another battle pops up and we don't have that much time to heal people." At that, he shot a glance over to Litharelen and gently touched the almost invisible scar running between her eye and ear.   
Lily smiled to see them, and, before slipping the bottle into one of her own pockets, she filled it with the liquid from the fountain.

While she was at the mansion, she was supplied with drawing materials, as she had asked to be the one to convert the tiara's design onto paper. It took some time, as this was rather important, but when she was done, no one could have been more pleased with the results than Tom was. However, she had to cut his thank yous short so she could return to Hogwarts and still get a reasonable amount of sleep, which she did rapidly.   
The next morning, having gone to sleep at four, she woke up at noon to James shaking her.   
"What? What! What is it?"   
He bent over her. "You were in the Alendoren Cove again."   
She shot up in bed. _"What?"_   
"Lily, I don't know how many times I've told you that it's dangerous!"   
"Why do you care? And for another thing, I'd greatly appreciate it if you'd stop being so bloody overprotective!"   
He winced. "Look, I'm sorry. I just don't want you to die—can't you understand that?"   
Impatiently, she shrugged his hand off of her shoulder. "No. I don't see why you should care. It's my life, and they're my friends. Just don't bother about me, all right?"   
Rather downcast, he let his hand fall. "All right. All right—all right. Fine. I'll leave you alone." He turned to leave, with an exceedingly hurt look on his face. Lily cringed.   
"James—wait!"   
He turned around. "Wait for what?"   
She stood up, throwing her dressing gown around her shoulders and walking over to him. "James, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it the way it came out."   
He didn't respond.   
"James, I just can't stand being watched over too closely. Please—you _have_ to understand." Pleading, she stared up at him. He couldn't help but give in.   
"All right—all right. I'm sorry about the overprotectiveness. It just seems to me that you're like my little sister—and even though we fight a lot, I don't know what I'd do if you died."   
She smiled. "Then we're friends?"   
"Exactly. Shake?"   
She held out her hand and he shook it with mock seriousness. Then, however, he seemed to think of something else.   
"Lily?"   
"Yes?" Lily knew it was something important—the sparkle had gone from his eyes. "What?"   
"I want you to know something. Whatever happens, no matter in how much trouble you are, and no matter how badly you feel or where you are, know that I'll be there for you."   
Two tears spilled over her cheeks as he told her that, and she blinked several times before looking up at him.   
"James?"   
"What?"   
"It's your mission in life to make me cry, isn't it?"

He grinned as he reached out and wiped the tear strands away from her face.  "You could say that."

Even though she was crying, she couldn't help but laugh.  "You evil creature."

"Why so?"

"You make me think you're a terribly nice, kind, and sympathetic person, and then you choose that moment to reveal your true self."  
He considered this, stroking his chin a bit.  "True."

"Humph."

"Say, Lily?"

"What?"

He was a bit uncomfortable when he tried to say this.  "Do you mind if—if—"

"If what?"

"If we go to the Alendoren Cove today?  I'd really like to meet Tom more—and that funny unicorn—and besides, Hogwarts gets a bit boring after a while."

Lily laughed.  "All right.  But if Sirius or any of those three find out, it would be less painful for you to be impaled on a large rabid werewolf than to meet me."

"Deal!"

They shook hands laughing, but then Lily remembered something.

"James."

"Hum?"

"What're we going to tell them as to where we're going?"

James grinned.  "Leave it to me."

Groaning, Lily dropped her head back.  "_Why does my common sense protest so strongly against this?"_

They went down to breakfast, and, seating themselves, started to heap their plates.  When James and Sirius started talking, Lily didn't pay attention, till one remark slipped out from James.  Then her head snapped up.

"Say, Sirius, do you mind lending me a couple Galleons?  I'm taking Lily to Hogsmeade today and I'd like to be able to buy her something nice."

Lily wasn't the only one that was astounded, though she was the one that collected herself first.  Sirius resembled nothing more than a large, overstuffed hippopotamus that had just been given a large smack over the side of the head with an oar.  

"Excuse me?"

"What?  I just asked you for a couple Galleons!"

"You—you're taking _Lily to Hogsmeade?"_

"Yeah, what about it?"

"You?"

"Me."

"Are?"

"Is."

"Taking?"

"Taking.  No—wait, make that 'escorting'."

"Lily?"

"Lily."

"To Hogsmeade?"

"To Hogsmeade."  

Sirius was still resembling a hippopotamus, only now the hippopotamus was angry.  "Why?"

"Because I asked her and she said yes."  
Sirius turned to Lily, who was trying to look as unconcerned as possible as she spilled the pitcher of milk.  "Lily!"

"What?!"  Now the biscuits had been upset, too.

"You're going to Hogsmeade with James?"

James shot something between a glare and a warning look and a 'yes' at Lily.

"Er—sure, why not?"

Sirius threw his napkin on the table.  "I've had enough."  Disgustedly, he left the Great Hall, leaving Lily and James with extremely guilty faces as Peter and Remus stared at them.

Peter was the first to snap out of his trance.  Which was a first.

"Way to go, Prongs!"

James shrugged.  "Pete, in the nicest way possible, shut up."

Peter obeyed instantly.  Remus, however, had not been told to shut up, so, well, he didn't.

"Say, James, is it a boy or a girl?"

Lily kicked James when she recognized the look on his face.  "I'm a girl, Remus dearest; if you don't believe me, you're welcome to check."

Remus pushed his chair back.  "I'll leave that to your boyfriend."

Lily grinned wickedly.  "He's not my boyfriend, he's not coming that close, and it's a good thing you decided not to; if you had, you'd be running if you still could."

Remus rolled his eyes.  "Point taken.  So, James, when did you ask her out?"

James arranged his fork in such a position that if he let go of the prongs, a piece of sausage topped with jelly would go flying straight at Remus.  "I didn't.  I only asked her to come to Hogsmeade with me."

"Oh."  Remus frowned.  "I'll go see about Sirius, then."

He pushed his chair back and left the Great Hall.  Peter was still there, but when Peter was eating, he was as oblivious to his surroundings as if he had just had carrots stuck up every opening his body had.  And Peter was eating.

Lily was staring at James as if she doubted that a greater idiot existed on the face of the earth.  There probably didn't, by the way.

"Potter, that was one of the most idiotic things you've ever done."

"Oh, so you could have done it better?!"

"He has caught on!"

"And how, may I ask?"

Lily pointed over to the teacher's table.  "See Filch?  Tracking snow over the floors will get one a detention."

"So?"

"So one conveniently invents a detention.  This avoids the kind of spectacle you have just created."

"Oh."  James slumped down in his chair.  "I feel dumb now."

"You should."  With the characteristic toss of her head, Lily resumed the task of trying to kick the biscuit-and-milk mess underneath the tablecloth before a teacher noticed.

That afternoon, quite as unplanned, but expected, Sirius was avoiding them as much as possible, to the extent of hexing himself and leaving the Great Hall for the hospital wing.  Somewhat depressed, Lily and James met in Lily's dormitory.  She had asked him to wear something inconspicuous, such as gray robes.  Not everyone in the Alendoren Cove knew him, and it would be safest for him if he didn't barge in on several elf-nymph teenagers getting changed in one of the coral reef's rooms and then be attacked because he was a stranger.  James had agreed.  Lily herself was a well-known figure down in the Albanian inlet, and so were her dark articles of clothing; therefore, she donned her usual black jazz pants, shirt, and cloak, along with a relatively new pair of shoes she could move quietly in.  If she was to be around Svordsja, it was in her best interests to keep silent, unless she wanted a kick in the head.  If she did, that could be arranged easily; all she needed to do was show up in a fluffy tutu.  Sadly, though, Lily had more self-respect than that.  Shame.  The blackmail photos would have come out so nicely otherwise.

Anyway, Lily pulled James inside the room quickly, shutting the door.  His eyebrows went up.

"This looks highly suspicious."

"Get your sick mind away from where I know it's dwelling.  Come here."

He obeyed with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.  Squaring her chin and setting her mouth firmly, she swerved in front of him. 

"James Potter, in case you were wondering, no, I'm not throwing my necklace around your neck.  Hold onto my arm or something."

Before she could protest, her breath was knocked out of her by an extremely strong grip around her waist, with James' fist digging into her stomach.  She managed to gasp a few words.

"Not that hard!"

He released his hold a bit.  "Look, can't you see I'm a bit nervous about what might happen if I lost hold of you and started flying into oblivion?"

She studied him critically.  "No, I can't say that I do.  I've received the impression that you enjoy suffocating me."

"Sorry."

"It's all right.  Just—just allow my blood to flow normally, and we'll be all right.  _Normally."_

He grinned shamefacedly.  "Ready, then?"

"Sure, why not." Lily groaned.  "I'm going to _die." She let out an involuntary gasp as he caught her around the waist again; she tensed up quickly, but it wasn't needed._

"Thanks."

"For what?"

"Allowing me to breathe."  
"Oh, that.  Anytime."

"Hmph."  She sniffed, but she couldn't repress a smile.  "Hold on.  _Loosely."_

"I've been ready!"

"Okay."  Lily pulled the necklace out from under her robes and looked around critically for a hard something.  They were in the middle of the room.  Lily decided to improvise.

"James!"

"What?"  His eyes were closed.

"Wimp. Bend you head down, will you?"

"Huh?"

"Just do it!"

He shrugged, but let his head fall onto her shoulder.  With a wicked smirk on her face, Lily dashed the stone as hard as she could against his skull.  Before he could yelp in pain, they were spinning through darkness, and had landed in somewhat deepish water before James could get out his "Ouch!"

He outed with it as soon as they surfaced, letting go of her rather quickly, holding his head, then grabbing frantically for her as soon as he realized that his feet weren't touching anything.

"_Lily!  Where are we?"  He dunked her, hard.  _

She came up.  "Alen—" He pushed her down again, in his struggles to stay on the surface.

"Where _are we?"  _

He let her up.  "The Alendor—" Down again.

"AAH!"

"Alendoren—"

"I'm drowning!"

"The A—"

"I'm dying!"

"Mmph!"

"Help!"

"Ja—"

"Someone help me!"

"Potter, I—

"I'm _dying!"_

Lily gave up and let him hold her underneath the dewy water.  She could breathe it anyway; it wasn't like she'd be drowned.  But James didn't know that.

He pushed himself up to the surface, using her as a banister of sorts, till he started treading water calmly.  Then he seemed surprised when Lily didn't surface.  And when she did, it was with her face downward.  She was having a bit of fun.

"Lily!  Oh, my gosh—Lily!  You all right--?"

She didn't move.  Meanwhile, she was discovering that one of the interesting aspects of this odd Alendoren Cove water was that she could hear everything James was saying.  

"_Lily!  Oh, my God!  I—I—oh, help, what'd I do!  __Lily!"_


	46. On spending forever together, James' ina...

He tried turning her over; she flopped lazily onto her back, eyes wide open, glazed, and staring before she slowly started to sink.  James panicked.

"Lily!  Lily!  Oh, my bloody purple humping monkeys!  Lily!"

No response.  Lily floated a few feet further down.  He decided to dive.  About time, Lily thought. 

After a good thirty seconds, he caught up with her and managed to drag her up to the surface.  When they reached it, her arms were folded and her eyes were wide open.

"Now, really, James, that was one pathetic rescue mission."

It was a good thing that he had nerves holding his eyeballs in place, she reflected, because he certainly was setting a new world record as to the amount his eyes were popping out.  He managed to gasp out a few mumbles that were barely recognizable as English.

"_Lily!  You're alive!"_

"That is quite possibly the stupidest remark I've ever heard.  Why do you have me pinned so close to you?"

He let out a snort.  "I thought you were dead!"

"You also thought you were dying when you were in the process of killing me.  Kindly let me go."

He obeyed, scowling a bit.  "Do you know how scared you had me?"

"As a matter of fact, no.  Didn't think you cared."

"Well, I thought I'd killed you."

"If it weren't for the fact that one can breathe in this liquid, you would have."

James gaped.  "You can _breathe in this water?"  
Lily sighed.  "Technically, my friend, this isn't water.  Watch."  Quickly, she sank under the surface, not bothering to take a breath.  She stayed there for a good minute and a half, and James could clearly see her chest moving up and down with each breath she took.  When she came back up to the top, she had to resist the crazy urge to try to hit his eyes to see if they'd pop back into their sockets._

They didn't, and she did.  She resisted, that is, contenting herself with simply smacking him on the back of the head.  

"Potter, of all the stupid things to do, you had to try and drown me!"

"I said I was sorry."

"Actually, no, you didn't."

He scowled.  "Fine.  I'm terribly sorry for almost murdering you.  Can we get to dry land now?"

Lily sighed, but gave in.  "All right."  Just then, James gave an odd start.  "What?"

He touched the tips of her ears.  "You is what.  Look at your ears!"

"Mm-hm.  I know.  I also noticed that, while breathing this liquid when I was playing dead, that I'm forming odd sorts of fins on my hands."

James gaped and snatched both of her palms, spreading them out.  It was true; she was forming a small, delicate, silver web between each finger.  It didn't look so bad, come to that, but what was rather frightening were the silver strands forming across her hair, reminding him of zillions of small lightning bolts.  

He took a deep breath.  "Lily?"

"Hm?"

"You ready to go to shore?"

She shrugged.  "Sure, if you say so."  Instantly, she had kicked upwards, hard, and had dived into the water a good five feet in front of him.  From time to time she surfaced, streaking the water with her silver lightning bolts cutting across her hair.  He followed her quickly.

James knew the only reason Lily reached the shore at the same time she did was because she'd purposefully dawdled, but he appreciated it just the same.  He swung himself out of the waves and held a hand out for her.

Lily smiled and accepted, leaping onto the rock he was standing on.  To his surprise, her cloak was hardly wet; well, that is, he could see the water glistening on it, but it billowed in the winds and waved about her feet quite unlike a soaked one would, which would actually stick to her legs and feet.  And her hair was dark and heavy with the liquid, but it still curled around her face, blowing with the wind.  Looking down at himself, James found that his clothing imitated the same actions.  The pearl-gray robes he had donned were soaking wet; he could feel that, but they were no heavier than before, and the sharp north wind that was blowing whipped them every which way the wind felt like.

Lily snapped him out of his trance by taking his wrist rather sharply and yanking him down from the boulder.  Quickly, he followed her, to some place he assumed she knew.

When they reached Tom's cave, however, it was empty, and the door was shut.  Lily saw reason in that.  No sane person would stay right in the blast of this wind.  And Tom was mostly sane.  For the present.  So, whipping around, she whisked straight for Svordsja's stable.  The door opened easily, and she stepped inside.  Beckoning James to follow her, both were glad to get out of the knife-cutting wind.

Svordsja was inside; kneeling down behind a large mound of piled sand to keep the wind out of the cracks. Her head was down on her forelegs, but she raised her head as soon as Lily and James entered.   
Lily stepped forward quietly, holding out one hand, muttering some words under her breath. The pentacorn let out one snort, then relaxed, the tension leaving all three of them. Lily beckoned James to come over and sit down.   
"Sit. She won't hurt you—HOLD IT!" She held out a hand, almost hitting James in the face, as the pentacorn's horns lowered. Lily gulped.   
"I forgot she doesn't like most people. Here. Give me your hand."   
He was a bit edgy about this, but he held it out, and, crooning under her breath, Lily brought it ever closer to Svordsja's neck, not letting James yank it away when the animal tossed her mane and snorted, but bringing it closer till it rested on the stately creature. When she didn't gore James in the stomach after a full minute, James let out a huge breath.   
"Whew!"   
Lily agreed. "I'd forgotten. I'm sorry."   
"No problem. It's payback for almost getting murdered."   
She grinned. "I'd forgotten about that, too! Come, sit down. She likes being used as a sofa cushion." He hesitated.   
"I'll sit near her teeth, then, for Pete's sake! Come on, she won't hurt you."   
James sighed. "All right." He obeyed and sat down next to her, but not that close. Though he wouldn't admit it, the strange silver mists and threads running through her eyes scared him quite a bit. He couldn't look into them for too long; they'd make him terribly nervous.   
Lily noticed. "You're scared of me."   
He was indignant. "Me, scared of a girl! I think not! Where ever did you get that utterly idiotic idea—"   
She wasn't convinced. "You're scared."   
James slumped onto the floor. "Yeah, so what?"   
"Nothing. It's interesting. I'm not a different person or anything, am I?"   
He shook his head. "You're not. I just—oh well. Never mind." He moved closer. "Overcoming fears is good."   
She smiled slightly. "James?"   
"Hm?"

"You haven't told anyone, have you?"   
He frowned. "What do you take me for?"   
Lily shrugged. "I don't know…I just figure that if you see Sirius so upset, you'd break down…" She saw his face. "Never mind."   
Taking her arm, he patted Svordsja quietly. "Lily, this is your secret. It isn't mine. I've got no right to tell anyone."   
She gulped. _Please don't make me cry!_   
He continued. "And I don't intend to tell anyone, not even my closest friends, unless you want them to know. Otherwise my mouth and my quill are staying dumb."   
Lily smiled. "Thanks."   
"No problem."   
"I would have thought it would be; come on, you're a famous Marauder!"   
Grinning, he nudged her. "You mean you _want_ this to be shouted in a Howler from the Great Hall when everyone gets back from the holidays?"   
Agape, she stared at him. "You _wouldn't!_"   
Seeing the smirk on his face, she settled back down. "I thought not."   
He knew better, but let it go. Instead, he switched the subject to something that had bothered him for quite some time. Lifting a hand, he ran it through her hair, ignoring her flinch. He picked up one of the strands of silver hair.   
"_What,_ may I ask, are you doing?"   
He ignored her indignation. "Let me see something. Bend your head down."   
Instead of obeying, she snatched it back up. "How much harm do you intend to inflict upon my skull?"   
He shook his head. "I'm not you,—"   
"That would be scary."   
"—and I don't intend to hurt you;—"   
"But will you?"   
"—I just want to see something. Head down. Or, at least, incline it this way."   
She sighed before obeying. Quite clearly, she could feel him lift some of her hair up and study it.   
"What are you doing? Last time I checked, I wasn't a laboratory specimen."   
"I just want to see if this is real silver. Mind if I tear some out?"   
"Yes."   
"Too bad." He tore some of it off. To his surprise, it broke like a piece of wire.   
"Erm—Lil?"   
"Yes?"   
"I think you've got a silver mine planted on the top of your head."

Lily scowled. "You've got such a nasty way of putting that. I have silver hair. Live with it. Otherwise, I can arrange for your funeral."   
"You'd have to kill me first."   
"Not necessarily. I could bury you alive."   
"Note to self: _Never_ let Lily Evans persuade me to get inside a closed, oblong box."   
"Wise."   
"Isn't it, though?"   
"Definitely."   
He sighed, then shivered. "It's cold."   
Lily frowned. "It is?"   
Pulling his robes more tightly around him, he shivered again. "Don't tell me you didn't notice."   
She shrugged, taking off her cloak and passing it to him. "I guess it's the elf-nymph change. Something like I have more resistance to temperatures or something. That'd explain why Litharelen's never cold, by the way."   
He nodded. "Right. Thanks for the cloak, by the way."   
"No problem."   
They sat there for a few more minutes, then Lily clapped a hand over James' mouth. "You humans! Stop the teeth-chattering! I can't think!"   
He immediately clenched them. "Sorry!"   
"'S okay. I just get too annoyed with things."   
"With me, too?"   
"Sometimes," she admitted truthfully.   
"Why?" He looked rather hurt.   
"Well—you do get rather irritating when you're showing off, and once in a while you just are too boring for me."   
"Excuse me? I'm on the Quidditch team, I—"   
She cut him off. "Well, that isn't going to make any girl going to want to stay with you for life, my friend."   
James looked at her quizzically. "You mean you ever considered that?" 

Lily opened her mouth to say something cutting, but decided against it.  "I tried once.  The only picture I got was of us tearing each other's hair out."

He nodded.  "You've got a point."

"I know."  
"But—Lil—"

"What?"

He put a hand on her knee.  "When did you ever form the notion of us maybe spending forever together?"

Lily shrugged.  "It was after an exam, I was bored, and I was looking around the classroom and trying to see who I definitely wanted to stay rather far away from."

He withdrew his hand.  "Makes sense."

"And you, my friend, were just stuffing a fire-breathing salamander down Vanessa's shirt."

He grinned, then checked himself as he met her glare.  "True.  Hey—what?  It was fun!"

"Yeah, and Vanessa had scorch marks on her back for about three days."

"Er."

"Very good answer."

"I try."

"Good.  Try harder."

"Sorry."

"It's all right…" She sighed and let her head fall back.  "I hate myself for getting so fed up with little things."

"I do, too."

She looked up.  "You get fed up with little stuff, too?"

"Nope."  He grinned.  "I hate you for getting so fed up with little things."

"Gee, thanks!"

"I was joking!"  He lightly punched her in the arm.  "Joking.  Jay-oh-kay-eye-en-gee.  Joking."

"I'm impressed."

"I can spell it backwards, too:  Gee-en-eye—Ouch!"  Lily withdrew her hand.

"Enough is enough, you mammoth."

"Mammoth?  Then you're a saber-tooth—er—a saber-tooth—"

Lily smiled.  "You know I'd take it as a compliment if you called me a tiger, don't you?"

"Unfortunately."  He sighed.  "Say, when do you plan on returning to Hogwarts?  It's rather cold, in case you didn't notice, and wind is one of those factors that do exist in this little la-la-land place."

Smirking wickedly, Lily stood up and gave Svordsja a small pat on the side.  The pentacorn immediately stood, knocking James onto his stomach.  Needless to say, he was rather indignant.

"Hey!  That hurt!"

"I thought someone was complaining about sitting here!  Come on.  I'm teaching you how to ride her."

James shook his head.  "No.  Way.  In.  He—in heck," he amended, seeing the look on her face.  "No way."

"It'll keep you warm. Come on, you wimp!"

She knew he disliked being called a wimp, and he knew she knew, and she knew that he knew that she knew that he disliked being called that, and he knew that she knew that he knew that she knew that he disliked it.  In other words, both of them were aware of the fact that James wasn't too particular to that name.

"Lily Evans."

"If you want to hit me, you'd better catch me.  Come on!"  With that, she had flung herself over Svordsja's back, had steered the pentacorn to the door, and crashed headfirst into the shrieking wind.  James shook his head as he followed her.  

"What do you want me to do, jump onto a running horse?"

"Pentacorn."

"Whatever.  You honestly want me to do that?"

"It's not quite traditional, but it'll warm you up.  I assume you know how to ride a pentacorn?"  
"Yeah."  James nodded.  "At least, I've ridden horses."  
Lily wrinkled her nose.  "In other words, you _can't ride.  Never mind about that.  For now, I'll stand still.  You try to mount her."_

"With you on her back?"

"Why not?"

"Okay then."  Taking a deep breath, James took a running start, and, slipping his foot into the loop made by a fold of Lily's cloak, he soon was on the back of the pentacorn.  Lily, however, wasn't.

The sudden jerk of his foot in her cloak had thrown her off of the steed, onto an area relatively free from sharp rocks, as she was thankful for later.  However, she was stunned enough to close her eyes and black out.

James didn't notice at first that she wasn't in front of him; he was sitting on Svordsja with a self-conscious grin on his face. When he did realize that no one was in front of him besides a dangerous five-pointed horse's head, his first reaction was to look up. If Lily had been awake, she would have groaned at the density of some people she wouldn't have mentioned because James knew who they were. But Lily wasn't awake, and finally, after checking all of his surroundings, James realized that.   
"Lily!"   
He gave a sort of strangly gasp, then tried to swing himself down from Svordsja's back. It didn't work too well. He tried to swing his leg over her back and land conveniently on the sand, but somehow he managed to get entangled with his own feet, so he was hanging off of the pentacorn sideways. It surprised everything around that Lily didn't wake up at the world-class screaming concert Mr. Potter presented.   
He finally managed to get untangled, and when he did, he almost committed unintentional suicide by falling off. But in the end he was kneeling near Lily's head, shaking her extremely hard, so hard, in fact, that if her neck had been only a bit less firmly attached, she would have had no head.   
"Lily! Lil! Oh, come on, wake up…you're only pretending again, aren't you? You'd better be! Oh, wake up, won't you?" He sat back. "This is an extremely sticky situation."   
Sitting back on his heels, he stared around the inlet for any moving creature besides Svordsja, who had already tried picking Lily's cloak up and boosting her onto her back. The pentacorn seemed to understand quite well when someone needed help, James reflected, but at that moment he didn't have time to reflect. Several loud bangs came from a spot shielded from his eyes about two hundred yards away. James gulped.   
The first thing that came to mind was the story Lily had told him about the day of her first battle, and, though he didn't know what it had looked or sounded like, she had given him a pretty good verbal illustration. And, since there were bright green and gold sparks coming from the place he couldn't exactly see, he was more than convinced that this was exactly what he had thought it was.   
"Oh-oh. This isn't good." He was right. It wasn't. "What'm I going to have to do now, with Lily like she is? This was _not_ a good time for this to happen!"   
No, it wasn't, but James couldn't very well do anything about that now.   
"Oh, dear bouncing quills." He glanced around for a convenient place to hide, and when he did find one, he discovered that it was one of the hardest things in the world to lift someone about your own weight onto a nine-foot high pentacorn. Panting with the effort, he finally gave up and leaned against a suitable piece of rock that was sitting nearby.   
"This _definitely_ isn't good."

He finally decided to take her back into Svordsja's stable, the entrance to which was much more concealed than the regular cave Tom used was. Swinging her into a sort of damsel-in-distress-that-is-being-rescued mode (in other words, he was carrying her in front of him, one arm under her neck and back and the other under he knees), he set out for the cave.   
It was funny, he thought, how distances lengthen so terribly when one is carrying something heavy. Not that Lily weighed that much, but she was still a human being, and she didn't have hollow bones or anything of that sort, and she didn't starve herself. Just this once, though, he wished she had.   
James managed to push the stable door open and set her down on a pile of something hay-like, though it looked like splintered glass and was soft to the touch. It made no sense to him, and he decided to drop it before his head started to hurt from thinking about it. Svordsja curled herself around Lily, and James set himself to brushing the bits of rock and sand away from her face after swinging the door shut.   
It took some time to free her skin from all of the debris that her fall had almost permanently embedded into her, but he finally managed it, and by the time someone screamed loudly about one hundred yards away from the stable door, her hair was relatively untangled and placed neatly away from her face.

James and Svordsja gave a large start when something exploded almost outside the door; the only good side to it was that it woke Lily up. She shook herself several times and tried to sit up.   
"Lily! You're all right!"   
"I would say how childishly obvious that is, but I don't think this is the time. _What's going on and what did you blow up this time?_"   
He frowned. "I didn't do anything—this time. I'm guessing it's another battle."   
Lily frowned, too, but hers was more of an 'I'm thinking, so leave me alone' frown, while his was pretty nonplussed. Then she stood up, wincing. James caught her wrist.   
"And where do you think you're going?"   
"Outside. Let go."   
"Lily! Do you have any idea what the words 'highly dangerous' mean?"   
"Yes. 'Fun'. Let me go while you still can reproduce."   
"Lily."   
She swung around slowly to face him. "James Potter, if you wish to be fatally injured, keep this up. If, on the other hand, you would enjoy participating in a battle, feel free. I am going out there whether you like it or not."   
"Chances are I don't."   
"Then the other chances are you do. Coming or staying?"   
He sighed. "Coming. But isn't there anything in the way of armour around here?"   
"It's called a Shield Charm. Get used to using it."   
"Right. And if it doesn't work?"   
"Then, my friend, you are royally screwed." She vanished out of the door, and James followed her, muttering.   
"Why did I even bother to ask?"   
He looked out of the door, and was met with a surprise. Actually, more of a battle scene than a surprise birthday party, but it was still a surprise. It was also another one to find that Lily wasn't out there, and he stared around stupidly for a good ten seconds before his collar and himself were yanked into a sort of cove.   
"Excuse you? That hurt!"   
"Sorry. It's just that if you insist on being hit with the Killing Curse, you're going about it the right way. And you haven't told me whether or not you'd mind, so I figured I'd better pull you out of the way."

"I like your logic."   
"So do I. Now, I'm going to be watching. Disturb me and you're going to wish you'd never attended Hogwarts."   
"Done."   
"Good."   
"Okay."   
"Hush."   
"All right."   
"I said 'shut up'!"   
"No, you said 'hush'."   
"Potter!"   
"Snap—Evans! I meant Evans! Really, I did!"   
"I suggest you shut your mouth."   
"You know, that really might be to my advantage."   
"Then shut up."   
"Yes, sir."

Lily pushed him aside rather roughly and ducked.  James was quite puzzled until he saw a small crack that she was peeking through at the battle.  He poked her on the shoulder.

"What's going on?"  
"Tom's fighting…naturally.  I can see Crabbe..and Avery…and Nott—oh, and there's Macnair.  Don't blame Lith for not letting him know about Svordsja—that ax he's swinging looks rather nasty.  Doesn't he know how to use a wand?  Brainless…and someone just hit the floor!  Beach, actually, but who am I to criticize.  Ministry wizard—James, do you know him?  Remus-y hair, kinda short, chubby—I might know him.  I think I've seen him somewhere before.  Tom, the Medusa hair on that poor girl really wasn't necessary!  Ouch—that had to hurt!  What'd he do, give her cobras for hair?"

James interrupted the flowing commentary.  "Looks like he did.  Pleasant, isn't he?  That wizard over there—the one that looks like a cross between Remus, Peter, and a slug—that one's Marvel.  He's one of the clumsiest Auror's I've ever seen."

"He works in your father's department?"

"My father goes to the Ministry once in a while to straighten interesting things out.  He doesn't work there."  
"How come?"  
"He doesn't need to; we're the richest family besides Malfoy's on this side of Britain.  Well—and the Doylens.  But still—yeah, that is Marvel.  Idiot.  See anyone else you know?"

Lily pushed him aside to squint at the group.  "I don't know.  Don't think so.  I know most of Tom's people—they've all visited him at one point in time—but I don't recognize any of the Ministry."

"Who do you think is winning?"  
"I don't know.  Can't exactly tell.  Looks to me like the Ministry's lost more people, but they're driving Tom back.  Depends on what you mean by 'winning'."

"Ah.  Anything interesting happening?"

Lily frowned and didn't answer for quite some time.  James finally got impatient and shoved her less than gently.  

"Anything interesting happening?"

She wore the expression on her face that she hardly ever wore:  the one that said 'There's something wrong and I can't put my finger on it'.  "Depends.  There seem to be less and less of Tom's army—but they're not dead.  They're not anything.  They're just not _there."_

"You mean they disappeared?"  
"Yeah—exactly.  But I don't know if they'd dare without Tom's orders—and why he'd allow them to leave him in the middle of a battle is a mystery to me."

"Oh.  I see."

Suddenly, Lily let out a loud gasp.  "_Tom!"_

James instantly knelt next to her and stopped looking for more peepholes.  "What?  What?"  
"They're all gone!  All except Tom!  Every single one of his army—hang on.  I think it'd be safe to stand up now."  
They regained their feet behind the rock, and, peering over it, saw that the entire Ministry army, what was left of it, at least, was closing in on one person:  Tom Riddle, and he was the last of his army, the others obviously having Apparated away.  Just as the Ministry wizards formed a circle around him and he was in the center of a ten-foot ring of enemies, he raised his wand into the air, muttered something, shot a green and glowing figure into the air, and started laughing madly before he Disapparated.

There was nothing left on the field but about three dozen rather unnerved Ministry wizards, destruction and splinters of rock shards and sparks everywhere one looked, and the great, glowing shape Tom had shot into the sky.  Lily drew her breath in so quickly she became dizzy.

It was the same design on the tiara Eva had given her as a birthday present once.  The same design she had copied onto paper for Tom.  The skull with a snake protruding out of its mouth.

Lily had no time to think, for the Ministry was searching all around for anyone that was still on the inlet, and James had taken control.  Quickly, he threw the necklace around both of them, dashed it against the rock they had been kneeling behind, and held her tightly as they whirled back to Hogwarts, landing hard on the floor of the dormitory.

They couldn't speak for more than a few minutes, and when they finally managed to get up enough strength to get up from the floor, the first thing Lily did was fall onto her bed, while James, after unhooking the necklace from around his neck, simply stole the blanket that was lying at the foot of her four-poster, using it as a pillow.  When Lily finally sat up, she had to shake her head several thousand times to get rid of whatever was buzzing around in her brain and giving her a large headache.  That landing was the hardest she'd ever had; if it had just been a tiny bit more violent, they'd both have broken several bones.  

"James?"

"What?"  
"Why did we land so—erm—painfully?"

"I don't know.  It's not usually like this, is it?"  
"No.  I—wait.  James Potter."  She sat up.  "You threw the necklace around both of us, didn't you?"

"Er—yeah."  
"_Never do that again."  
"Why not?"  
"Because if the landing has not broken all of your bones, I will personally take care of that."  
"Hey!"  He defended himself.  "You didn't know that this would happen, either!"_

She was about to respond, but then her shoulders sagged.  "True.  I'm sorry for blowing up."  
"Anytime, I guess.  What _was that green thing we saw?"  
Lily frowned.  "The skull with the snake that Tom shot into the air?"  
"Yeah, that."  
"I think—well, actually, I __know he's using it as his Mark now.  Sort of like a trademark.  I guess he's using it whenever there's a battle or something important happens—I don't know!  I just know that—well, I don't."  
"You don't sound to be pretty far off."_

"Thanks."  
"Sure."

He rubbed the side of his ribs, where a large bruise was forming.  "You up to walking to the hospital wing?"  
Lily smiled.  "We could do that."  
They did so quickly, avoiding anyone that might ask questions they couldn't answer.  Madam Pomfrey was told that they had fallen off of James' broomstick, seeing that Lily was rather terrified of them.  She asked no questions; simply gave each of them a hot, chicken-like broth to drink and touched the bruises they had a few times with her wand.  By the time they went down to dinner, they were perfectly fine, and if Lily hadn't imposed a strict rule of silence about what happened that afternoon, James would have been singing Madam Pomfrey's praises with his knife, dinner glass, and a terribly warbling baritone that needed to be squashed.

Sirius seemed to be all right again at the dinner table, at which Lily was terrifically relieved.  She had been afraid she'd done something—well, something that had hurt him badly.  But he was in quite a good mood as he asked James if he'd had a good time at Hogsmeade.

"Yeah, I did!  It was neat…but Zonko's needs to hire new inventors.  The stuff they have is rather old.  But other than that, it was wonderful."  
Lily smirked.  She didn't want any idiotic rumors about her and James going around, so she was going to prick his little bubble of happiness and hinting as soon as possible.  Which, in other words, was right now.

"I don't know if I'd call it a good time if I were in his place—but everyone to his own, I guess.  _I personally wouldn't like having rum spilled all over me and then being attacked by a phoenix on a rampage, but I guess he does."  
Sirius snickered.  "You ordered rum?"_

"No."  Lily settled into her seat.  "Rosmerta was serving some hag, and James had put his bag in her path.  She tripped.  And I'm not quite sure the seven showers he says he took got the smell of it out of his hair."

James stared at her, rather insulted.  "Hey!"  She glared.  "I mean—I thought you said you wouldn't mention that!"

"I said I wouldn't mention it.  I didn't.  I introduced it as a topic of general conversation and interest."  
"I'm really starting to despise you."  
"Oops."

"That isn't a question with an 'Oops!' answer!"

"That's what I just made it."

"Oh, honestly!"  James grabbed the hair on each side of his head and pulled.  Yanked, actually.  "You're one of the most difficult people to live with that I've ever seen.  Honestly!"

She shrugged.  "I'm sorry.  By the way, I'm going to need your advice later today."  
"You are?"  He was puzzled.  "I thought you were refusing to talk to me!"

"I need your advice."  
"On what?"  His evil grin flickered across his face.  
"On what to make out of one of my Christmas presents."  
His face dropped.  "It's nothing more interesting?  Like, for instance, how to propose to Snape?"  
"Well, _actually,--" She had to leave off, as the boys were laughing so hard it would have been pointless to continue.  They wouldn't have heard her anyway._


	47. Christmas, New Year's, and Muggle pranks

She met James down in the common room later that evening, while Sirius and Peter were serving detentions for Filch for setting off firecrackers in the hallway in front of his office and while Remus was resting—that night was going to be a full moon.  So, when James came down to the common room, he wasn't surprised at all to find it empty except for Lily.  Walking over to her, he knelt down in front of her, looking at the book she held.  

"Oh, hullo."  
"Hello."  James stood back up.  "_Agatha__ Christie:  An Autobiography.  Interesting?"  
Lily nodded.  "Actually, yes, quite.  She found out once that her husband intended to divorce her, so she ran away and was found ten days later in an institution, where she was proclaimed insane, so her husband couldn't divorce her and marry another lady, but two years from then—Okay, I'll stop.  I remember asking you down here, don't I?"  
"I suppose you do.  I remember your asking me that."_

"Good."  She reached behind her and pulled out the long roll of black velvet she'd received for Christmas.  "I need to know what I need for the Alendoren Cove.  I was thinking I might need a riding habit, but then again I might need some clothes especially for Albania.  I don't think my school robes like the water there."  
"They don't.  Mine are fading."  
"Plus the fact that I have to tear them up every time something like a battle crops up.  So I need your advice."

He smiled.  "All right, then.  You don't need a cloak, I presume?"  
"No.  I got mine from Severus some time ago, but I lengthened it."  
"You got it from _Snape?"  
"Yes—so?"  
"You need a new cloak.  Well—aside from that, I do think that a dress and riding habit might double as the same thing, don't you?"  
"That could work," Lily admitted.  "Have any ideas as to patterns?"_

James pulled the book of patterns out from behind her back.  "Let me see this for a minute."  He looked through it, flipping pages almost idly, till he came to something.  Staring at it for some time, he finally decided it was good enough, and handed the book to Lily, pointing to the page he'd just been examining.

"That one would be good.  Remember, you're an up-till-now unknown outlaw."

Lily wrinkled her nose at his words, but had to admit that what he said was true.

The pattern he'd pointed to had a hood attached to a short cape with slits in it for arms, not too obnoxious but easy to use when covering up one's face was desirable; it had a tunic going down to the knees and tied at the waist with a simple sash, along with long, wide trousers.  There was also a design for a mask that covered the forehead, hairline, and nose, leaving the mouth and ears free, with slit-like cuts for the eyes.  It was, all in all, something someone might wear to a Halloween party, but when the hood and mask were removed, Lily mused, it wouldn't look any more out of place than anyone else's robes did.  She looked up at James.

"Would it be beneath you to help me with this?"  
James squirmed for a bit, then, suddenly, relaxed.

"Sure I'll help you.  I was the one that suggested it, right?"  
Lily laughed.  "I suppose you could say that."  
"So, when do we start?"

Smiling, Lily wrapped the material around one arm.  "Is tonight all right?"

He suddenly looked nervous, a fact that Lily was quick to catch on to.  "What?"  
"Er—I don't know if you realize this—but tonight's a full moon…"

Lily shrugged.  She had instantly caught on to the fact that James wanted to be with Remus, but…well, this was much more amusing…

"I don't see what that has to do with you."  
"It does—see, he's my friend, and, well—"  
"He's a werewolf, and when he's transformed, that's even more reason not to get too close to him."  
"Er—"

"You don't intend on going with him, do you?"

"Well—not _exactly—I was going to wait for him—"_

"You can do that just as well with a scissors in your hands, can't you?"

"Yeah, but that would just make too much sense!"

"And?"

"Oh, never mind.  Lil, we can't do this tonight.  Wish I could, but—but—er—well, I don't think I can give you an explanation right now.  Maybe sometime."

"Gee, that consoles me."  
"It should.  See you tomorrow at breakfast."  
Lily sank back into the armchair, gathering up sheets of paper.  "Sure."

James, vanishing up the stairwell, didn't catch her last words.  

"I know you want to be with your friend, Prongs…"

He was with his friend.  For safety reasons, and because Lily wasn't that insane as to step right in front of a werewolf marauding the Hogwarts grounds, she didn't follow them out at around ten; contenting herself merely with sitting at her window and making out the shapes of three creatures dashing across the lawns covered with brittle, packed ice.  Peter wasn't visible from her point of view, which was near the top of a tower.

The next morning, as expected by Lily, all three were late to breakfast.  Remus was in the Shrieking Shack, sleeping as much as his conditions would allow.  Lily received this information thanks to the strange effects the Alendoren Cove had on her; mostly the increased sense of hearing.  She gathered that they had possibly discovered a passage to Hogsmeade ([i]Another[/i] one?, Lily thought privately), and that there was a shortcut to the kitchens if one rampaged through the greenhouses and trampled most of the Flutterby bushes.  She felt that they really needed a map or something, so as to keep track of everything they found, but they were _Gryffindor boys, which basically meant, to her that they wouldn't do anything if it involved work.  And, depending on how one looked at it, writing could or could not be work.  In their eyes, it depended on how many other options there were open to them…_

She steered clear of questions as to why they were so tired, and that day she spent mainly in her room, writing a long letter to her family at home and working on her tunic.  It might have been lonely for some people, but Lily reveled in the time she spent by herself, singing snatches of old arias and humming the overture music from _Gone With the Wind.  It surprised her when she realized how much she remembered from the Queen of the Night's first aria from __The Magic Flute._

_Du__, Du, Du wirst sie to befreien gehn--_

_Du__ wirst der Tochter Retter sein;_

_Du__ wirst der Tochter Retter sein.___

_Und werd' ich Dich als Sieger sehn',_

_So sei sie dann auf ewig Dein,_

_So sei sie da(here an extremely long sequence of high and almost impossible notes was to be sung)nn auf ewig Dein _

_So sei sie dann auf ewig Dein.___

It was one of her favorite pieces; the Queen of the Night has lost her daughter to an evil kidnapper, and the mother begs a prince to return her daughter to her, and this was the speech the mother made to the prince.  It was Lily's dream to sing that in a performance, though she knew she never could.  This aria was definitely [i]not[/i] made for altos.

Still, she passed an enjoyable afternoon with her memories and her needle, and when dinner rolled around, she was still half in her land of fantasy and evil snakes and Egyptian mythology, hardly noticing the worried glances the boys were giving each other after staring at her face, which, apparently, had taken on a glazed, blank look.

The next few days passed quickly, and all too soon it was New Year's Eve, and Remus, Peter, James and Sirius had invited her down to the common room for a party, which was supposed to be preceded by a trip to Hogsmeade.  Lily had accepted with a rather absorbed and absent smile—she was still thinking about her status as an unknown criminal.  James seemed to know what she was thinking about, at least, he elbowed Sirius harshly when Sirius opened his mouth to ask Lily what was wrong.  

Nowadays, Lily hadn't taken the necklace off at all; not when she slept or took a bath or anything else.  It gave her a sort of sense of security to know she could vanish anytime she got into an extremely sticky situation; i.e: Ministry wizards coming to Hogwarts and asking to speak to her.  She knew she was overanalyzing when it came to that last point, but wearing the necklace still made her feel safe.  

The pendant seemed to have changed over the years she'd owned it.  When Severus had first presented it to her in the hospital wing, the talons encircling the stone were a brilliant reddish gold, and the pear-shaped spherical stone itself was a warm midnight blue, with the faintest trace of a gold mist inside.  But now the golden mist had changed to streams of swirling silvery gray smoke, the talons were a whiter gold than they had been, though it was still a warm color, and the stone was indecisive when it came to deep blue and sea-green; it was a dark blue with a hint of greenish tint.  Lily was a bit edgy when it came to why its appearance was changing; whether its power was also in-or decreasing, whether this would bind her to Tom forever when it took on the appearance of Litharelen's pendant—silver and deep green—or whether anything else might happen that she hadn't thought of.  

Still, when New Year's Eve came around, she was quite capable of shaking off all those worries and indulging in the party the boys had planned.  They had told her to wear something casual, to which she had replied:  "And you would get the idea that I own any other type of clothing from _where?", and warm, since they were to be outside at Hogsmeade for a bit.  So Lily had pulled on her usual pair of black dance trousers, the first shirt that was handy, her cloak, and a pair of gloves.  The four boys met her downstairs._

"Hullo!"

Lily smiled.  "Happy New Year's Eve."  
Sirius grinned toothily.  "Same.  Come on; we want to get to Hogsmeade before the pubs fill up, don't we?"  
His suggestion was greeted with all-around applause, and it took them next to no time to slip under the Invisibility Cloak and slide into the passage underneath the one-eyed witch—they weren't about to use the one under the Whomping Willow, for it was much too chilly outside, besides the fact that snow was whirling.  James had brought his broom, and, holding all of their wands, illuminated, in one hand and the broom in the other, he managed to heap everyone onto the broomstick and to guide them quickly through the underground corridor.  It was lucky James was so good on the Quidditch field, Lily thought, otherwise they would certainly have crashed into the walls several times before now.

They emerged in the cellar of Honeydukes relatively quickly, and, after heaping their pockets with candy, they stepped outside the candy shop into drifting, falling snow.  Tramping loudly through the large crowd, they made their way to the Three Broomsticks, where each of them ordered a large butterbeer. 

Over the din caused by several tipsy wizards, a few cheering hags that were counting down the seconds till midnight, though it was only ten in the evening, and the chatter of everyone else, the five managed to hear each other relatively well.  A comfortable hour was passed with the sharing of candy, jokes, and laughter.  When things threatened to become too quiet, Sirius and James livened the atmosphere up a little by cutting off, inch by inch, the six-foot long mane of hair of the witch sitting behind Peter.  

As the witch stood up to leave, she seemed to notice something was missing, and though she hadn't quite forgotten that she was extremely tipsy, she did forget that drinking more rum with raspberry syrup wouldn't help that condition and would not make her gain back the five feet eleven inches of hair that she lost.  The result of that was that she started to lean on Peter and question him about whether or not to go home to see her husband for New Year's, apparently forgetting that it was a bit too late to do anything about that at the present moment.  

Sirius and James almost had to be strapped down, blindfolded, and gagged if they were to stop laughing at all, and even Madam Rosmerta snorted into the glass of punch she was refilling and had to get a clean one out of the cupboard before anyone noticed.

The five friends left the Three Broomsticks before the witch regained her senses, and even in the street Remus and Lily had to pin the two almost hysterical boys down and have Peter stuff snow in their respective mouths so they would at least calm down a _little._

They meandered along the comfortably packed streets, admiring the candles and torches beaming twinkling light out onto the frozen and falling snow from shop and pub windows.  The Christmas trees in the show windows were decorated with miniature, real candles that wouldn't burn down, as were the evergreens in the village streets and in the pubs, though those were enchanted to stay lit even when they got wet, which was an advantage in the Three Broomsticks, as people had started clinking their mugs together rather forcefully and sending splatters of butterbeer flying everywhere.

James stopped to say hello to several Ministry wizards he knew, they got into a snowball fight in the front yard of the Shrieking Shack, and by the time what was left of the Honeydukes chocolate slabs was almost frozen, it was eleven-thirty, and they retraced their steps to the Three Broomsticks.

Inside, the trees were still throwing their twinkling light everywhere, and the family of customers was cheery, warm inside, and extremely good-natured.  Sirius was the one who picked up the warm butterbeers from Madam Rosmerta at the bar, and the rest seated themselves at a table near the wall, with a tree on either side and a family with two little girls on another.

Sirius distributed the drinks, and, sliding into his seat, was the first one to open his.  It ended in a sort of race between Remus and Sirius to see who would finish their bottle first.  Peter won, though he hadn't intended on playing.  Peter had upset his drink and it was dripping through a crack on the table on the snoozing cat that was lying beneath it.  The whole pub started to shake with laughter at the antics of the furious cat, who obviously didn't seem to like the fact that she was now covered in butterbeer.  Lily was resting her forehead in her hand, shaking her head.

"Peter!"

"W-what?"

"You absolute rocket scientist!"

"I'm sorry!  I didn't know that the cat was underneath my spilled drink!"

For some reason, that set everyone off again, and when they had all gotten somewhat in control of themselves, a loud signaling bang, sounding oddly like a cannon, echoed down the streets.  Chattering noisily, the crowd moved towards the stone bridge that spanned a tiny part of the Hogwarts lake that extended into Hogsmeade.

Lily, James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus were pushed onto the front row of the people on the bridge.  Facing the village, Lily reflected on how beautifully it resembled a postcard of the type her grandfather used to send her mother around Christmastime—the thatched roofs covered with a three-inch layer of snow, flakes trickling down onto lantern-like street-lamps, and the candles smiling onto the icy streets and lake.  

She hadn't much time to reflect on that, though, for as soon as she had wrapped her cloak closer about her, a stream of golden fireworks shot up from a boat near the edge of the lake, exploding in the deep black sky and plastering the viewers' eyes with a momentary golden reflection.  

As the village clock struck midnight, the heavens were illuminated with golden, blue, violet, pink, scarlet, and sea-green lights and flashing sparkles, all crossing each other and dashing from one end of the village to another, only to fall onto the streets, where a small permanent glitter remained.  Towards the end of the performance (sponsored by Zonko's), several thousand glittering streaks slashed the cloudless sky, finally gathering and forming the shape of England.  The viewers burst into applause, wild and stormy, as the shape condensed into a familiar figure and continued long after the sparkles had faded away.  

Everyone was disappointed at having to leave, but as the public mass started to vanish into their respective homes, Lily and the four boys had to return to Hogwarts before Honeydukes closed.  

As it was, they only just made it into the cellar, and James, Peter, and Remus had to zoom on ahead with the broom to get things ready in the common room while Sirius and Lily lagged behind.  It was supposed to be something like s surprise for the only Gryffindor girl at Hogwarts, and they weren't about to let her walk the way from Hogsmeade to Honeydukes alone, and James was needed to guide the broomstick, so Sirius volunteered to walk her back to Hogwarts.

They made their way around the earthy walls of the corridor, Lily dreamily recounting the events of that evening, and Sirius listening, throwing in a few words every now and then.

"I don't believe it—that firework display was wonderful.  Nothing like that could ever have been managed in the Muggle world."  
Sirius grinned.  "It was amazing, wasn't it?"  
"And you and James cutting off that poor woman's hair—oh, you really _had to do that, didn't you?"  
"But of course!"_

"I should have figured."  Lily smiled as she replayed the scenes of that night over again.  

Sirius had been wondering about something for some time, and he decided that this was as good a time as any to ask her this.

"Lily?"  
"Hm?"

"What do you think about James?"  
Lily frowned.  "Why?"  
"Oh—" Sirius shrugged.  "I know he took you to Hogsmeade the day after Christmas, and he talks about you some—I just wanted to know, that's all."  
"Oh."  Lily released her face of the wrinkles.  "He's a rather overstuffed prick when he wants to be, but when he doesn't, he's quite nice to be around.  I like him when he's not trying to be an idiot and succeeding very well—he's got sense, he's pretty smart, and—well, I suppose that's all I can think of right now."

"But you could think of more in a heartbeat, if you weren't so tired, right?  And you could go on forever about how good he is at Quidditch—"  
Staring up at Sirius with a more-than-concerned manner, Lily tugged hard on his cloak.

"Sirius, are you out of your _mind?"_

He caught himself quickly.  "Never mind.  I'm being an idiot—don't pay any attention to me."  
"Too late for that."

"Yeah—I suppose.  Hey—just forget I said that, all right?"  
"Er—"

"Just say yes.  I don't want him to think I'm jealous or anything…"

"Jealous?"

"Er—forget I said that, too."  
"Sirius."  Lily stepped in front of him and stemmed her fists into her sides.  "There is something you aren't telling me."

"Um—"

"Speak up so I can hear you."

He shrugged, letting his frown deteriorate into nothing.  "I said 'forget it'.  Lily, really, I'm just not in the most perfect of moods right now.  Can't we just erase this?"  
"Not unless you have a Time-Turner, which I rather doubt."

He sighed.  "You would doubt correctly.  Say, just don't mention this to the three, all right?"

Realizing she wouldn't get anything else out of Sirius, Lily gave a similar sigh and headed for the common room, Sirius trailing her.

They walked into the common room just as Peter finished pinning a large amount of candy beneath his bulk as he fell off of a chair.  Laughing, everyone helped repair the smashed Chocolate Frogs and other things, and when they were finished, Lily had to admit that the common room had never looked as—well, as _appetizing as it did then.  _

Strands of Sugar Quills, all strung together, hung from the walls as streamers; large slabs of chocolate covered the walls, a large cauldron hung over the fire with boiling chocolate in it, several Levitating Sherbet Balls had been charmed so as to actually levitate about six inches over their heads, Cockroach Clusters had been substituted for dust bunnies, and where candles were usually placed in the chandeliers, the boys had turned several bottles of butterbeer upside down and fit the heads inside the candleholders.  

Several Cauldron Cakes had been arranged and magically pasted onto picture frames, Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans had been dumped inside pillowcases knotted at the open end, forming rather interesting pillows, and several packs of Drooble's Best Blowing Gum had been converted into tiny bubbles that floated around the sherbet balls.  

All in all, it was quite satisfying, and though Professor McGonagall or Filch would have thrown several large fits, the four boys and Lily were content to label it as their dream of the afterlife.  

They didn't sleep at all; they merely entertained themselves with pulling gum bubbles out of the air and sticking them in their friends' hair; also by conjuring up strawberries and dunking them in the boiling chocolate (Lily's idea), then eating them along with the levitating sherbet balls.  

At two in the morning, everyone was rather giggly, as they were tired and had stocked up on enough sugar to last them four years, besides floating two feet above the ground as an effect of the sherbet.   As soon as they landed after two hours in the air, they spent the rest of the morning with butterbeer, chocolate, and skits they made up on the spot, steering clear of the sherbet balls, though one always had to be on the watch for James stuffing one of them into one's bottle of butterbeer.  Lily was giggling herself sick at one about Professor McGonagall.  It was a very faithful imitation of her style of walking, but Sirius was imitating it.  Enough said.

The rest of the students were scheduled to come back that week, and when they returned, Lily almost found herself missing the familiar, cozy, almost quiet atmosphere that existed while the rest of Gryffindor Tower was gone.  Almost.  It was nice to have Eva back, and of course, Miranda—and Amanda was also back, all of them full of energy and stories.  Severus and Lucius, filled to bursting with news that they simply _had to tell her, kept owling Lily during breakfast, telling her to meet them in the library or other places, that they had big news.  _

The classes started the day after the students returned from holidays, and everyone went to breakfast almost unnaturally excited at the prospect of classes.  It seemed that Lily was the only one, though, to notice that Sirius and James were trying fruitlessly to look innocent of something.  She figured, however, that she'd find out what they'd done pretty soon, and she was right.

She, Eva, and Amanda were heading to their first class—true, they didn't have it together, but the classroom Eva and Amanda were going to was on the way to the dungeons.  Lily had Potions first.  Hurriedly saying goodbye as they reached the Charms corridor, each of them hurried towards their respective classrooms.

Frank Longbottom got to the dungeon door before Lily did, and he was the first to turn the knob.  When he did, however, the door didn't swing open.  The knob did.  Swing off, that is.  It fell off the door.

Lily groaned.  "Potter!"  

Moving forward, she knelt down and scooped the pieces of brass up off of the floor.  It was a quite simple Muggle prank.  The doorknob had been unscrewed and the screws had been stolen.  She didn't have much time to examine it, however, before Professor Cauldwell pushed his way through the ever-widening group of students.

"What's all this?  What's all this!  Make way, now, it's not that hard to enter a classroom!  Make way!  Listen, now, don't shirk your privilege of being able to attend—hullo, what have we here?"

He had spotted the hole where the doorknob used to be.

Luckily for the pranksters and their intentions, the locks weren't attached to the doorknobs so that they would fall off when the knobs weren't attached; they were buried further down.  Which really meant that, right now, they were locked out.

With a maddening air of superiority, Professor Cauldwell moved on to the next dungeon.  By now the bell had rung, and James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter had arrived, with large grins crossing their faces as Professor Cauldwell moved from one dungeon to another, seemingly breaking the knobs off of each door.  Lily moved over to Sirius.

"Wouldn't _Alohomora work?"_

A grin that he couldn't repress was idiotically pasted almost across his eyeballs.  "Nope.  For some reason, Alohomora turns the knob.  This—er—situation—doesn't _have that particular appliance."_

They were by now moving up a staircase, in search of a classroom that hadn't been attacked.  

A good hour later, the whole school had been ransacked, and it turned out that only one classroom had been overlooked and that Professor Trelawney was locked in her tower.  The students almost had several miniature heart attacks at hearing the frantic banging on the trapdoor when the dragonfly-like witch found out that the house-elf that provided her with her food was physically unable to enter her room.

The students—everyone except the ones that had Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures during that time--were herded into the Great Hall, to sit there until the teachers were able to enter the rooms, but since they hardly left adequate supervision (Filch and Professor Zimmermann), almost three-fourths of the student body escaped the Great Hall and got to their common rooms, where Lily found that the kitchens had been rummaged so as to turn out a sufficiently delicious feast for the four boys.  No one had proof that they did it, of course, but everyone knew it had been them, and they didn't stint in their praise for their heroes that had gotten them out of class before it even started.

"Wonderful, boys!  Getting to think you'd given up on this!"

"This is so much better than that traditional 'turning robes pink' junk.  I mean, really!"

"I know!  This got us out of class.  What does that other stuff get us but a detention?"  
"Seriously!"

"But did you see Cauldwell's face when he saw that he couldn't get to his napping chair?  He looked like a right pillock!"

"He did!  I've never seen anything so entertaining!"

They had to return to classes after lunch, however, since the teachers had managed to make about seventeen classrooms re-enterable, which was somewhat of a disappointment.  It was also impossible to find out who had done it, though Professor McGonagall had the 'about-to-take-ten-points-from-Gryffindor' glint in her eye every time she stared over at the four fifth-year boys, who were the center of attention of a large group of Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws.  The Slytherins mostly contented themselves with doing homework for classes they hadn't finished the night before.

They had quite a bit of fun with un-expected Muggle pranks that couldn't be fixed that easily by magic.  Of course, the 'locking-Filch-in-the-underground-dumpster' one was easily remedied once someone found him; still, it did take some time to do so.  Professor McGonagall finally gave up trying to punish them and started to retaliate.

Her first opportunity came when Sirius and James fell asleep in class.  Quickly, she shuffled the rest of the students out of the room, drawing the curtains over the sole window and extinguishing all the lights.  Then, assuming a ferocious and outraged manner, she stalked back inside, and the class huddled against the door was repressing loud snorts of laughter as they heard her berate them for 'this late hour', and generally losing her temper over their 'oversleeping'.  Then Sirius asked what time it was.

Professor McGonagall cooled down instantly; almost as if someone had put the Full Body-Bind Curse on her.

"Three-thirty."

The boys stared at each other, horrified.  "Three in the _morning?" they gasped._

"No."  Businesslike as usual, Professor McGonagall shook her head  "Three-thirty in the afternoon.  I suggest, Potter, Black, that you stay awake in the future.  Ten points each from Gryffindor."  
There had never been anything so ludicrous as James' and Sirius' face when the class tromped back in, trying fruitlessly to hold in giggles as they slid into their seats.  

It was almost like a war, Lily reflected, only this one was accompanied with a lot more mirth than the one in the Alendoren Cove.  Which reminded her.  The Alendoren Cove.  Tom.  How was it going down there?  She knew that he planned to move to England eventually; she just didn't know when, and whether he was still capable of it.  In other words, she wondered how hard his army had been hit by the fights, and whether he and his followers were in Azkaban or not.  Frankly, she rather doubted the last part—Tom seemed too surreal to ever have mortals catch up with him.  

She asked James what he thought about this one night, and he agreed with her, saying that Tom was too brilliant to let himself be caught.

"How do you know?"  
"How do I know what?"

"That he's brilliant, of course."  
"I have run-ins with Filch, don't I?"

"I fail to see how those two things have any relation whatsoever."  
"Doubting creature.  I get detentions whenever I do anything annoying like trek frog brains all over the third floor, right?"  
"Nooo…._never—Filch is __much too kind…"_

"Well, I've been stuck with polishing the trophy room several times.  Tom Riddle is on a placard for old Head Boys and has an Award for Special Services to the school.  It jumped out at me a month ago, when I'd just learned Tom's last name and had my newest detention."

"For what this time?"

"Disemboweling the wrong creature on purpose."

"Fill me in."  
"Disemboweling a creature whose parts would make my potion have an extremely different effect than what it was supposed to have."  
"Ah."

"I don't like Cauldwell."

"Pity."

"Isn't it, though?"

"Not really.  But I'll let you think so."  
"Why, thank you!"

"Yes; I'm simply the picture of graciousness."

"Not really.  But I'll let you think so."

"Er."

"Eurgh."

"I don't know you."

James laughed.  "You know, if anyone were listening to this, they'd call us both insane and lock us up in St. Mungo's?"

"I hope you don't think I didn't notice.  I'm talking to _you, after all—how much more insane can one get?"  
"Hey!"  He pretended to be hurt.  "I'm desolated!"_

"_Je suis désolée sounds so much better."_

"Okay then.  Je-er—what was that rest?"  
Sirius came to the foot of the boys' dormitory stairs.  "Hey, Prongs, whatcha doing?"  
James waved.  "Learning French!"

"Ooh!"  Sirius whizzed over and plunked himself on a cushion.  However, Lily stopped him before he even had a chance to open his mouth.

"No, Sirius Black, I will _not teach you swear words in French."_

Sirius sulked playfully.  "But!"

"No buts."

"Other than—"

"No other thans."

"Excluding—"

"No excludings."

"Except—"

"Sirius!"

"Okay, okay.  I'll stop."

"But why?!"

"James, don't you start!"

"Geez," James sulked; "you take out all the fun."  
"That would be the point."

"Er."


	48. Birthday presents Pleasant things, aren...

"_Er?_"   
"I guess." James shrugged.   
O.W.L.s were coming up quickly; the teachers were piling so much work on them that the fifth years were lucky if they got five hours of sleep. Generally, the common room would be filled with about ninety students at two in the morning, numbly reciting the fourteen potions using bicorn blood or mumbling something about the proper wand movements to Transfigure a chair into a current newspaper. There was also a newly-founded buffet table near the fire—James and Sirius had managed to persuade the house-elves to bring them a never-ending supply of hot cocoa, and then they would add their stores from Honeydukes to the pile.  
Easter vacation was hardly a vacation. Lily stayed at Hogwarts, along with all of the fifth, sixth, and seventh years. The sixth years had their N.E.W.T.s to take care of, and the seventh years had a graduation exam, not to mention their Apparition test. Of course, Lily was overworking herself drastically; going off food and sleep in order to make one thousand per cent on each exam and making herself look like a ghoul, as Remus put it.   
Sirius approached her one morning; it was four-thirty, and Lily was still trying to find the countries where gillyweed was known to flourish, under what conditions it grew, and how exactly it transformed one's body.   
Rolling his eyes, Sirius slammed a mug of hot cocoa on top of her book. "Drink."   
"But Sirius—"   
"_Drink._"  
She obeyed like a numb sort of pillow, gulping the searing hot drink and feeling it almost blister her throat with its heat. Then, unexplicably, her eyelids started to droop, and she fell forward onto the table she was using as a desk, head on her arms, and her long red hair tumbling everywhere. Sighing, Sirius slipped his arms underneath her, and, picking her up, carried her to her dormitory.   
He let her fall onto the bed gently, and, after he'd slipped off her shoes, pulled out a small blue bottle from his robes.   
"Sleeping Potion—should last twelve hours. Good. She needs that. I don't think I've ever seen anyone that cares as much about her grades as she does."   
He almost ran into Remus outside, who was a bit curious as to where Sirius was dragging a sleeping Lily.   
"Sirius? What's wrong?"   
"I figured this was necessary. She's hardly sleeping at all."   
Remus nodded. "Wise. No one overworks as much as she does."   
"My thoughts exactly."   
"We're not supposed to be up here, though."   
Sirius grinned. "We're the Marauders. Have rules ever stopped us?"   
"No," Remus admitted, "but the Head Boy might."   
"Oh. True."   
Silently, Sirius swung the door to Lily's dormitory shut, and, tiptoeing down the stairs, managed to leave the girls' side of the Tower before the current Head Boy caught them sneaking around and breaking another couple of rules. He, unfortunately, was a Gryffindor, while the Head Girl this year was a rather shy Slytherin. Which really meant that Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff could get away with much more than their fellow Houses. So far, Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter had refrained from inflicting bodily harm upon him; the only thing they had done was the Full Body-Bind and the Stunning Charm. Lily was surprised they'd held back so much.   
When Lily woke up, she was surprised to find herself in her bed. The last thing she remembered was Sirius handing her something to drink—and now, judging by the clock, it was almost dinner-time. She groaned, sat up, and immediately fell back onto the cushions.   
Lily fell into a sort or half-doze till the door opened to reveal a house-elf and Remus. The house-elf scuttled out quickly after setting down a tray on Lily's lap, while Remus sat down on the edge of the bed.   
"Lily?"   
"Hm?"   
"Here. Have something to eat—you look dead on your rearend."   
"Gee, thanks."   
"Well, you're not exactly on your feet. Have some apple pie." He pushed the dessert plate over to her, and she started attacking it ravenously.   
He let her finish off the steak pieces, the baked sweet potatoes, the creamed peas, and the kidney pudding without interrupting; it was only when she had, with a sigh, pushed the tray away from her that he ventured a remark.   
"Are you all right?"   
"Sure. Fine. Couldn't be better."   
"I mean, how tired are you; how hungry?"   
"I'm kind of tired, and I'm stuffed."   
"Relaxed?"   
"Well---I guess. Thanks, Remus."   
"For what?"   
"Er—well, making me go to sleep—but do you think you could hand me that Herbology volume?"   
"Oh, no!" Wand out, Remus Banished the book to the other side of the room. "You. Need. A. Vacation. Badly."   
Lily scowled. "Remus, I want to pass my O.W.L.s, for screaming out silently!"   
"Lily! You're going to pass them with two hundred per cent already! Stop, I beg you! This is going too far! We know you're smart, but this is frightening!"   
"Then don't pay any attention to it!"   
Remus sighed and dug around in his pocket for something; he pulled a mirror out and held it in front of Lily's face.   
"Look."   
Lily obeyed. She wasn't surprised at what she saw. The rings around her eyes she had gotten used to, and the wrinkles underneath them weren't that hard to see—the tangled hair she hadn't had time for lately. "So?"   
"So we can't not pay attention to it! Look at you—this is terrible!"   
"I don't care what I look like, and since no one else does, I don't see that it matters."   
Remus frowned as he tucked the mirror away. "You're a hopeless case."   
"Thank you."   
"That wasn't a compliment."   
"I know."   
Scowling, Remus banged the door of her dormitory, running into someone outside. This running into people seemed to have become a habit, he reflected.  
"James, watch it!"   
"Hey, I'm sorry. I just came to check on Lily. I know she was doing too much—and—well, I wanted to see if I could do anything."   
Remus sighed. "She's hopeless. Still thinking that we're trying to reform her into obsessing about her hair, and the only thing I did was point out the circles around her eyes. I mean, wouldn't you know what I was referring to if I'd said that to you?"   
James frowned. "Remus, buddy, we did put her through quite a bit in third year."   
"_We?_ I would put that more in terms of _you._"  
"Er."   
"True?"   
"True." He sighed. "Still—I think it might do her good to talk a bit—do something—oh, I don't know. She needs to get away from the books for at least an hour every day."   
"James, in case you didn't notice, she did sleep beforehand."   
"Yeah, something like two and a half hours a night."   
"True," Remus admitted. "Well. I guess, that if you want to put up with Padfoot's teasing—go ahead, talk to her."   
"You don't think he'll refrain from doing so, do you?"   
"No."   
James sighed. "I thought not."   
Remus meandered slowly down the stairwell while James pushed Lily's door open.   
"Lil?"   
She raised her head from where she'd dropped it on the pillow. "Hello."   
"Feeling better?"   
"I never was sick."   
"You were tired, though."   
"Oh, well. I'm not anymore. Hand me that Herbology book over there behind my trunk, will you?"   
"Oh, no." James sat down on her bed. "Oh, _no._Absolutely not. You've got to rest."  
Lily was growing impatient. "James, it's not as if I'm a deathly sick skeleton with triple pneumonia. Get me the book."   
"Lily!"   
"James!"   
"Lily Evans!"   
"James Potter!"   
"Oh, bleeargh."   
"Spurgle."   
He snapped his head up. "_What?_"  
"I thought that'd gain your attention. 'Spurgle' was what I said."   
"Er."   
"Ermph."   
"Huh."   
"Humph."   
He broke the train of odd noises. "Say, you going anywhere over the summer?"   
Lily shook her head. "Petunia and my father need me at home."   
Frowning, James fiddled with the end of a blanket. "But hang it all, they can't ask you to be a mother and wife to them! You've got to have _some _free time, don't you?"  
Lily smiled indulgently. "James, our situation at home is rather different from yours. We don't have house-elves to wait on us hand and foot—we've got to work for our money."   
"I understand that, but _still_—"  
"James, I'm the only one in the house who really knows how to manage. Petunia's learning, but she learns that slowly. And my father always used to depend on my mother for things like budgets and monthly payments on the house. I've got to help them."   
"Oh." He gave in. "I don't suppose you'd like to come visit us once in a while?"   
"Oh, there's no question about that; of course I'd like that—" his face lit up—"but the question is whether I can or not. And the answer to that is, decidedly, _no_."  
"Er—I guess—all right, then."   
"You understand?" She ran a frail hand through her hair.   
"Yes. I'm sorry—I didn't really understand."   
Lily smiled. "Potter, the last thing I want is sympathy."   
"Oh, fine. Say—" he cast an anxious glance around the dormitory—"you up to visiting the A-thing place anytime soon? I never really got to see it—so I was wondering."   
Lily laughed. "Oh—I guess—maybe. Only if you promise not to drown me or kill me in any other way you can manage to think of. I want more dignity than to be accidentally killed by a pillock."   
"Hey!"   
"And I'm not going before I finish the O.W.L.s. Live with it."   
"Sure. I wasn't expecting you to."   
"So we're agreed on that?"   
He grinned, sticking out his hand. "Of course, yeah, for once!"   
She laughed again as she shook it, though she almost fell out of bed, seeing that he was seated at the far end of her bed and she had to reach clear across it.   
Though Lily didn't, by any means, stop studying, she did ease up on it, sleeping almost regularly and going to meals. True, she brought her books down to the Great Hall and wouldn't let anyone interrupt her study, but still, she was eating. James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter themselves were studying almost frantically—especially James—his mother had threatened to cut his ears off if he didn't get at least a dozen O.W.L.s.

Easter break passed much too quickly for anyone, including the teachers, and very soon it was the third week before school let out; one week before exams. Nervous and jittery, everyone from fifth year up had relinquished all activities except studying—Lily even heard James voice the opinion that he was glad they weren't doing anything related to Quidditch; that the matches that year had been canceled, because this way they'd had more time for studying. It was the strangest remark Lily had ever heard to come out of James Potter's mouth; obviously, the rest of the common room agreed, judging by their bug-like eyes and the flapping mouths.   
Lily was flipping through the sixth of seven Defense Against the Dark Arts encyclopedias outside, next to the lake, one afternoon, with several rolls tied up in a napkin, when a shadow fell across her book. She ran her eye over the last sentence on the page, then looked up.   
"Yes?"   
Severus smiled. "Hello. I haven't seen much of you lately."   
Lily slipped the corner of the napkin inside her book, shutting it and placing it on her lap. "I know—it's just the exams—the O.W.L.s—" She stopped, making several irrelevant hand gestures. "I mean—you know how it is."   
He nodded. "Yeah—I know. Well, I guess I came over here to ask, in case I forgot later—I wanted to know whether you were going to visit Lucius—or me—this summer."   
Lily frowned. "Severus—I don't know. James asked me that, and I told him I had to stay at home, because of my father, but I guess I'd have to see."   
Severus sat down next to her. "Sure. I don't have to have an answer straightaway."   
Slightly smiling, Lily reached her hand out, dipping it in the lake, and then flung several droplets over the calm surface. They both sat there in silence as the water rearranged itself in a still sheet of silvery blue-green.   
"Say—Lily?"   
With an effort, Lily detached her eyes from the glittering lake. "Yes?"   
"I wanted to ask you this for some time—well, you haven't spoken to me much lately."   
She shrugged. "We've got exams coming up. I've been studying."   
"I know. And every time I see you, you're buried in Volume Thirty-six of Sixty on Extremely Rare Spells that are Extremely Useful in All Sorts of Situations or something like that. But still—I don't know—you've been around Potter and his friends a lot lately. That's not why you don't want to see either me or Lucius over the summer, is it?" His gaze was almost painful in its pleading.   
Lily was rather taken aback. "Severus—what on earth gave you that idea? I should think you know me better than that! I've got more respect for my friends than to let myself be cajoled out of them by a couple of prats."   
He sighed; a sigh of relief. "Good. I was worried there for a bit."   
Smiling, she elbowed him in the side. "You're not anymore?"   
"Nope. Thanks."   
"Sure. Anytime."   
"Coming to see us over the summer?"   
"I said I'd see! Listen to me for once, my friend!"   
"I do!"   
"No, I mean really!"   
They were both in much better moods when they parted; Severus going back up to the castle and Lily re-opening her book and taking a bite out of a biscuit.   
That week sped by so quickly that it seemed like merely seconds had passed before the one hundred and forty-five fifth years were herded into a section of the Great Hall to take the Ordinary Wizarding Levels. Placed in every other seat, they were first given a long Transfiguration paper to answer, and then three essays to write.   
Lily was one of the only ones to be relieved at the short answers; she had gone over them so many times that she could practically recite the two books she had used for extra reading in Transfiguration. It took them until lunch to finish, and when they did, no one wasn't glad of the existence of ice-cold pumpkin juice, chocolate ice cream, and other cold dishes the house-elves had prepared.   
After lunch, they had to stay in the Great Hall, and, one by one, they were called into a room off of the teacher's table to perform a tricky bit of Charms; bewitching a desk to whistle a tune and dance around the room; bonus points were given for the amount of figure-eights the desk did and whether or not the song was rather intricate and hard or simply "Mary Had a Little Lamb". Lily, having the Queen of the Night's first aria running around in her head, blocking out any other thoughts, had the desk sing that, while gliding across the carpet as if on ice skates. Professor Flitwick was very pleased; he gave her a large grin as she exited the room.   
Others didn't do as well, however; Elspeth exited the room with a rather greenish tint to her face. It seemed that the desk had gotten out of control and had done a double flip, wrecking itself and a portrait frame.   
That day, everyone felt as if something very large had been taken off of their stomachs; something in the line of iron weights. Next day's exams were going to be easier; Professor Cauldwell was giving them ingredients to make a potion with from memory; some of the ingredients they needed, some were just there to confuse them. They were to be making an Advanced Draught of Sleeping Death—the one the legendary queen used to try to bury Snow White alive. It had been interesting for Lily to learn that the old Muggle fairy tales had been rooted in wizarding legends—the poisoned apple was actually possible, under the circumstances.   
The afternoon was rather dreary; Professor Binns had prepared a long stack of questions on goblin rebellions and the treachery of Cleopatra's trusted magical advisor, among other things. The Great Hall was stuffy and sticky with suppressed yawns and trapped air; the tall windows on either side of the long tables had been shut and barred; the reason for that being that the open windows might cause distraction.   
Not even several secret Alohomoras from James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter all together, pointed at the same window, did any good. Dumbledore had obviously thought ahead.   
Relief overwhelmed each and every one of them as they sat down to dinner that night; out of their main subjects, only Herbology, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Astronomy were left—the Ordinary Wizarding Levels didn't extend to extra classes such as Care of Magical Creatures and Divination, though the N.E.W.T.s did.   
The fifth years got more sleep than usual that night—Defense Against the Dark Arts was the only class they would usually worry about, but Professor Dorvan was a wonderful teacher. She had managed to fix the things she taught them so unshakably in their minds that not even Peter could forget them. No one in Lily's Defense Against the Dark Arts class would ever forget how to tame a dryad after the disastrous occurrence Peter had with their teacher.  
Professor Dorvan, the next day, had prepared an obstacle course along with a sort of scavenger hunt inside and outside the castle. They had to start at the beginning of a deserted corridor, and make their way down it, on their way gathering the information they would need to survive underwater for fifteen minutes, besides fighting several creatures, including their teacher. Once at the end of the corridor, they would go through several doors, till they opened one that opened straight into about the middle of the lake; the water was held back magically. They had to swim up to the top of the lake, getting rid of the hinkypunks and other annoying little creatures.   
It was quite exhausting, and not one person was unhappy to find themselves safely under Madam Pomfrey's supervision at the top, where they would be instantly dried and presented with a flaming hot brew that made smoke come out of their ears and noses. Lily couldn't help but think that they resembled a cabinet full of steaming teapots.   
It would have been rather comfortable on a cold, wintry day, Lily reflected, but when they were under scrutiny of burning rays from the sun, it was less than delightful.   
Herbology, held in the greenhouses, involved repotting several bushes that shot fireballs out of their blossoms. Points were taken off for the amount of burns a student had, and points were added for the amount of blossoms a student could paralyze.   
No one was happy with Lily when she cleverly froze the organs of the flower that produced the fireballs, thereby effectively disabling it of its weapons. In fact, if she had gloated about it instead of ignoring it, she would have been unanimously hated by the class.   
Astronomy consisted of two parts; one involved the calculations of the movements of the stars in the so-far undiscovered wings of the Milky Way galaxy and pointing out their location on the thirty-first of October, 1981, besides determining their size, shape, and color. The other part took place on the top of the Astronomy Tower at midnight, seeing if their calculations were correct, besides locating several stars and pinning down their exact location. Even Lily was frazzled when they finally dropped off to sleep at one-thirty in the morning.   
But when they woke up, it was blessedly over—no work, no exams, no anything except lazing around for the entire rest of the week and the next one, till their exam results came out. No one could possibly be more grateful that the exams were over than the fifth, sixth, and seventh years; when the younger students complained of the wracking difficulty of such and such a problem, the older students took a great pride in sniffing patronizingly and saying that that wasn't anything; just listen to what they had had to do for Transfiguration, and then they'd take a great pleasure in seeing the mouths of the smaller students drop.   
The castle, sticky and hot and stuffy, was abandoned by all but the teachers, who were grading the exams. The entire lawns were filled with bodies lying in the grass, reveling in the splashes of lake water the giant squid squirted out at them.   
Of course, James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus weren't going to lie in the grass along with all the rest of Hogwarts; the first day after exams, they had dragged Lily and Eva to the Forbidden Forest, where, undoubtedly, it was much, much cooler, along with being a bit more exciting. Eva was terrified, and she was extremely glad when she could return to the castle for dinner. She couldn't understand Lily and the boys, who seemed to enjoy Stunning waist-high spiders, and then would go off looking for more to attack.   
Of course, Lily, on the other hand, couldn't understand Eva's queasiness; after all, as she said: "They're just _spiders!_"  
Eva would shake her head, as if giving up entirely, and she would continue her tirade consisting of the things she'd do to James' owl if they let any live spider get near her, which, of course, ended in the boys piling the Stunned and dead bodies of rather large garden spiders next to the rock she had taken refuge on.

Far too soon for Lily's liking, it was time for them to pack their things and leave Hogwarts—James had asked her if they could wait till summer to visit Tom and Litharelen, as he had heard from his father that the Ministry was going on another raid near the end of June, and he didn't really want to be caught in the middle of it. Rather reluctantly, Lily had agreed, for she didn't want to leave her family for several hours without explaining where she was going, and this was the most convenient time.   
But she had to live with his request, and she had to admit to herself that she liked the Alendoren Cove better when the air was quiet and smoke-free, and she could ride Svordsja through the friendly waves without bringing her steed in any danger of death, injury, or captivity—that is, more captivity than she was already in, which really wasn't much. Lily spent the time she would have spent with Svordsja in the Hogwarts kitchens, getting recipes from the house-elves for Petunia to use at home. The house-elves were delighted.   
They spent a good day stuffing their things into trunks, and when they boarded the Hogwarts express, she was rather edgy about what she would find at home. She was only fourteen—well, almost fifteen, but still, she wasn't ready to run an entire household with not much help. However, trying to ignore the worries that were pushing her shoulders towards the ground, she squared them with a smile, pretending to the best of her ability that nothing at all was wrong.   
It seemed she succeeded quite well—no one except Severus noticed that anything was wrong, and that was only because he had walked in on her when she was alone in a compartment on the train, hugging a book of her mother's tightly against her chest. He had no idea how grateful she was when he didn't make a point of it; simply sat down next to her and stared out of the window till she felt the tenseness leave her body.   
When he saw that she was all right, he brought her to the compartment of several of his Slytherin friends, and they passed an extremely enjoyable afternoon with food from the cart, Exploding Snap, chess, and Gobstones. Lily had been named the champion of chess when they arrived at Platform Nine and ¾, and it had become a sort of challenge to see who could get rid of the most of her pieces, since beating her was almost impossible.   
She said goodbye to her friends as she wheeled her way through the barrier; on the way out she caught sight of Mrs. Potter—James had said something about quite a number of people visiting his house over the summer. The lady about twenty students were flocking to had long, straight black hair that fell to her waist, and deep violet-blue eyes that made her son's look rather pale. She wore amethysts in her ears and on a chain around her neck; a silver ring with a deep purple amethyst that must have been worth a fourth of Gringotts' vaults adorned the ring finger of her left hand. Her robes were a plain black; though she managed to make them look wonderfully stunning, something the Hogwarts students found practically impossible to do.  
Lily averted her eyes and bent her energy towards pushing her trolley through the barrier, at which point in time she was greeted with her father's smiling face and her sister's rather tired countenance. Her father took the trolley from her and loaded the car with her trunk and Alisande's cage and occupant, while she and Petunia occupied the passenger and back seats.

Lily could tell that Petunia had been under quite demanding circumstances lately, but that she was relieved now. Petunia knew that Lily was better at handling the house than she was, and she rather resented that, but she nevertheless was quite glad at seeing someone who knew how to manage. Among other things, it meant that she could go out more with Vernon Dursley, the boyfriend she hadn't thrown over yet.   
Lily spent the first few days at her house with the vacuum cleaner, the mop and brushes, the washing machine, and the window-cleaner as her best friends. Petunia obviously tried her best, but she had had schoolwork to do and hadn't been able to give the house a scrubbing-down, which was what Lily was stuck with. But the week after she returned home, she was so far advanced as to be able to set sticks of incense out to get rid of the headache-causing scent of the cleaning materials.   
Her father, she knew, was grateful for a change in the meals he was served. Beforehand, Lily had had only so much time at home to write out recipes, and they weren't very hard to follow. But, thanks to the willing house-elves, she was able to paste several hundred bits of parchment with spidery writing inside a notebook she kept hanging from a nail in the pantry. It included several of her own additions; stuffed peppers and Swedish meatballs among the rest.   
Lily's father left for work regularly at eight, and at that time, after cleaning up the breakfast dishes, Lily and Petunia would grab their swimming things and head for the neighborhood swimming pool. Lily couldn't help thinking how much more she preferred her friends' marble basins and stone statuettes to the chlorine-caked tiles, but it was water, and that was really what mattered, she told herself.   
  
Her birthday started out quietly; she rose and took a bath at six-thirty, threw on a pair of pants and a shirt, whipped downstairs to boil water for coffee, and pulled bread and eggs out of the pantry and refrigerator. When the water boiled, she set the filter filled with the ground coffee over a pot and let the water flow through the filter; letting the finished coffee flow into a cup for her father. Taking it to his bedside table, she shook him gently, wafting the aroma of the brew towards his nose.   
He sat up in bed, stretching. "Lily! Thanks, honey…oh, and happy birthday! I'm sorry—I meant you to sleep in—"   
She interrupted him. "Dad, it's all right. Really, I enjoy getting up this early. Breakfast in ten minutes." She sped out of the room quickly, dashing downstairs and cracking the eggs in the pan, also tossing in about three slices of bread.   
As promised, her father's breakfast was ready in ten minutes, and as he sat at the table in his dressing-gown, gulping down coffee, she was occupied with watching several black dots outside the kitchen window quickly grow larger and larger. She jumped back just in time to let about five owls drop presents on the table and into her father's toast.  
"Dad—"   
He interrupted her. "Blasted owls! Can't your folk get any simpler way of delivering mail?" Then, seeing the hurt look on her face, he amended. "Sorry, dear. It's just that I'm not used to this—er—this sort of delivery. I'd like my toast free of—oh, wrapping paper! Hon, your friends sent you birthday gifts, go on, open them!"   
He cast a glance at his watch and stood up abruptly, almost knocking the table over. "Sorry, Lily. Have to go. Very late."   
Without waiting for a nod or a sign of comprehension from Lily, he left the kitchen, leaving Lily a bit sad, and a bit confused; neither of which feelings she had explanations for. However, she shrugged it off as she moved towards her friends' gifts.   
Deciding against keeping them in the dirty kitchen while the remains of her father's breakfast was still on the table, she took them upstairs to her room, placing them on the bed before whisking back to the kitchen to rinse off the used dishes. When she finally got back upstairs to her room, Petunia was already stretching lazily in her bed.   
Lily sat down on the edge of her bed, back against her pillow, one foot tucked underneath her, and picked up the first present: a pale cream paper with burgundy ribbon forever twisting itself into interesting shapes and sizes, including a Chocolate Frog and several kittens.   
"Remus!" Lily thought before even looking at the card. She didn't know how she knew; it was just the sort of thing Remus would think of. And she was right; it was from the friendly werewolf. Peter's name was also on the card, but Lily was certain Remus had done the charmwork on the ribbon.   
Carefully taking off the paper, she uncovered something she'd been eyeing in Flourish and Blotts for the longest time. It was a cookbook with a miniature figure almost like a house-elf inside; it gave directions and helped out when the baker was doing anything wrong, but it could do only so much, being just three inches high.   
Still, Lily thought, if Petunia wasn't too frightened to use it, this would be extremely helpful to her and to her father when Petunia was at a friend's house or something.   
Laying Remus' gift aside, she picked up the next one; to her from Eva, Amanda, Vanessa, and Miranda. Covered with forest-green paper, it was long and thin, and when the paper was put to one side, it revealed a grayish cardboard box. Opening it, Lily smiled.   
It was a broomstick; not the most expensive one—the Silver Arrow—but a Shooting Star. In the card, the girls had added:   
  
_ I think you should learn to fly on this—it's a disgrace having one of James Potter's friends not knowing how to fly! We shall hate you forevermore if you do not learn! Forevermore! Quoth the raven, "Nevermore"! Can ever dissever my soul from the soul of the beautiful Annabel Lee! Okay; too much Edgar Allen Poe. It's just that Mrs. Potter's a diehard fan of dear old Edgar, and his poems are tacked up all over the house. And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain that is presently waving unnervingly in our window and is making us stop quoting The Raven, of all things. We're starting to hate everyone's owl that is completely black. Urgh.   
  
--__US_  
  
Lily sighed, remembering her first disastrous encounter with a broomstick, which had resulted in her sporting a nasty bruise on her wrist for a few days, but resolved to try. Tomorrow.   
Sirius had sent her a rather smallish present; he had covered it with a lavender-smelling sheet of—well, it looked more like papyrus than anything else. She took a box about eight inches long and two inches wide and thick out of the papyrus, and, on opening it, gave a pleased sort of intake of breath sounding like a gasp.   
It was, of course, a replica, but it looked to real to be outside a safe. Sirius was one of the only ones that had patience and understanding for her hunger for other languages, and he had given her a black piece of marble, cut so as to fit in the box, and covered with the ancient Egyptians' hieroglyphics; beneath the carven Egyptian letters were engraved the Greek equivalents.   
He had also tucked a slip of paper with the English equivalents of the hieroglyphics, but he knew she would get more out of the Greek. He had also given her a book that taught the structure of the ancient Egyptian language, along with several slips of imitation papyrus. Though, of course, being purchased in the magical world, it was a very good imitation.   
Severus' and Lucious' presents came by the same owl; an invitation to spend some of the summer at Severus', a beautiful silver picture frame from Lucious with imitation black pearls decorating it. Lily smiled as she recognized her favorite combination of jewels. Severus, on the other hand, had given her something in the same style, though far more beautiful. Imitation black pearls for her ears, and with thin silver threads hanging from the pearl, forming an intricate pattern of a flower. Lily didn't want to think about the cost of it, and she never intended to ask.   
She quickly penned a short reply to Severus and Lucious, saying that she'd have to see whether she could come or not, but that she'd ask her father and inform them the minute that she found out, either way. She saw Alisande take off into the brilliant white wispy clouds, and, when her owl had finally vanished from sight, Lily turned to her last present.   
Wrapped in violet-blue paper, the color of his mother's eyes, James had charmed the surface of the present to squeak whenever it was breathed on, apparently. Lily tried not to as she pulled the paper off of the box.  
She almost dropped it.   
He had obviously worked very hard at this; and it wasn't to be sniffed at. Long, wide, and flat, it was a piece of canvas. Lily didn't know how he'd done it—it was a painting. Done in the duskiest shades Lily imagined existed on a palette, it was of Lily mounted sidesaddle on Svordsja through the waters of the Alendoren Cove, with the pentacorn rearing as two waves clashed underneath her. The dress that she was wearing in the picture was a white, filmy substance resembling a cloud more than anything as it whipped out behind her into the midnight-blue sky and trailed in the sea-blue ocean; her hair was unbound and her feet were bare.   
Behind Lily's head, partly covered with streaming dark red strands—he had managed to actually glisten as if they were wet—the moon shone, casting a halo-like glow around her head, and sending a beam to the tip of Svordsja's horns, making a sparkling glow issue from it. Lily caught her breath.   
She had had no idea James was this good at painting—no, he wasn't good; he was _wonderful. _This was better than anything she had ever managed to sketch, ever. And she had never seen anything that he had done—besides this. It looked as if it had taken weeks; maybe a month. She turned the canvas over, and on the back he had penned something.  
  
_Lily,   
  
I hope you like this—I tried as hard as I could to do you well—you move so fast and you've always got an odd expression on your face—somewhat as if you're sent down here from another world. I tried as hard as I could to replicate it, but it turned out rather flat. Svordsja was easy enough. I can't possibly imagine doing a creature that grand without making her look—well, fit for __Olympus__ or something of the sort. But you were different. Humans don't usually look like you do. That's not an insult, mind. I wish they all did. Still, this isn't making any sense, really, so I'll stop here—   
  
--James   
_  
Lily set the letter down, thinking hard. Her thoughts, as usual, were somewhat odd.   
I don't know why he tells me I look like I come from somewhere else. I'm definitely nothing special; I'm more ordinary than I'd care to be. I'm not in the least pretty, I'm only clever because I—I guess I was _born _liking books and languages, and I've got no special qualities that might make me out to seem like an immortal. I'm eccentric, that's all, though I sometimes wish I wasn't.  
It was easy for her to see herself that way—she was hardly ever complimented because she took the compliments in such an odd way; she would stare at the person with a rather surprised and halfway angry expression—and she was told that she was clever by her teachers and by other students that usually needed desperate help with their homework. To be honest, this was the first time anyone, even her family, had told her something like what James had written, and she didn't quite know how to receive it. She didn't know how to receive it now, as a matter of fact, and she had no idea what to write him in the way of thanks, as this certainly deserved something more than a simple _Thank you for your present. Yours sincerely, Lily Evans._ In the end, besides formulating a rather long letter, she decided on something she'd wanted to do ever since school began.


	49. James does NOT have a HOUSE MANSION, ye...

That evening, as soon as her father returned, she put her request to him as soon as he had received a glass of fresh lemonade and had been relieved of his briefcase and other papers.   
"Dad, one of my friends invited me to spend the summer with him—about twenty of my other friends will be there. Would you mind very much if I joined them?"   
Her father, clearly, wanted very much to give an emphatic "no." He had hardly seen his daughter that year, and this summer was an ideal opportunity for him to spend some time with her—besides, Petunia wasn't as adept at managing the household as his younger daughter was.   
Petunia complained more about the work and a somewhat tight budget, while Lily accepted whatever there was for her to accept with a straight, set face and squared shoulders, and she never seemed to object when he refused her a privilege. She also never let a sound escape her if she had been injured in any way—a few days ago, she had spilled boiling hot water on her right hand and never let out a sound.   
He liked that—a quiet, well-run household, and if he was to be left with Petunia, there was hardly a chance of that happening. But now, with the innocent, forest-green eyes directed almost piercingly at his own pale gray ones, he felt rather abashed at saying what he thought out loud. Harrumphing several times, he made several mumblings about how she had her duty to her family.   
Lily saw what he really meant, but she was sharp enough not to let it seem as if she had noticed.  
"Father, Petunia is so much more advanced in everything than I am—she is so much older than I, and she knows what you like so much better. I really think it would be better for you if you didn't have a crying child underfoot—and besides—" here a wistful, longing look adorned her lips—"besides, I have so looked forward to this."   
Her father, it must be admitted, was never one of the brightest people. Lily had mentally slapped herself several times for wondering why on Earth her mother married him. He sat there, considering what she had said, and, looking up at her pensive face, he capitulated.   
"Promise me not to get into any—er—trouble."   
"Of course, Father." It was her unconscious custom to call him Father in circumstances that seemed terribly formal to her, as this one did. A beam lit up her eyes.   
"And you will write—er—owl us every other day."   
"Of course, Father."   
"And you will have your hosts pick you up."   
"Of course, Father."   
"All right then. Give me a hug." He opened his arms and was pleased to notice that she wasn't tense; that she was almost shaking with inward excitement.   
Lily ran over her letter that very evening; she had added a post-script.   
  
_Dear James,   
  
I can't put into words how much I love the painting you sent me. It's beautiful. Funny—you never told me you were an artist. You should do more things; that was simply amazing, though I don't agree with you about your sentiments on my personality. I'm eccentric, that's all, and the picture turned out looking exactly like me. You're simply wonderful.   
I don't suppose I'm sounding much like a fifteen-year-old in this letter. I read the last paragraph over, and it seemed to me that what I wrote reminded me strongly of an old authoress, sitting rather uncomfortably in a wheel-chair and lecturing a naughty grandchild. I hope and pray that I never grow that old.   
Please don't pay any attention to that last sentence. It was a stupid impulse that made me sound even more eccentric than ever; and I don't wish you to think oddly of me, though probably you already do. What I really meant was that I would hate to be bound to a chair for twenty years and not be able to dress myself or to do anything by myself except lecture enduring and fidgety children.   
I remember you very well, though I didn't think that you paid that much attention to me to be able to paint what you did. I think that if I tried, a picture of you would come out rather nicely, since I'm usually confronting you. But one of my faults is that I'm terribly lazy unless I'm motivated, which right now I'm not.   
I remember you inviting me to spend some time at your house with the rest of the school (well, almost.). I rethought and decided that I really didn't like the Muggle world at all, and that I don't fit well into it. This evening, I asked Father if I could visit you, and he gave in. Would it be too much of an inconvenience for you or your family? You see, Father can't take me to your house, so I would have to ask your parents to pick me up.   
I hope you don't mind too much. This house, with its regularity and almost scheduled sameness drives me almost mad. Not that I was completely sane before, mind. Anyway, I'd really like to visit and get out of a house where my sister flinches at the merest mention of the words 'magic', 'Hogwarts', 'Hogsmeade', 'boarding school', 'broomsticks', 'summer work', 'Ordinary Wizarding Levels', and even 'basketball'. I simply explained to her the rules of Quidditch and mentioned that it was a bit like basketball on broomsticks with six hoops, and now she avoids any mention of basketball. She dragged me out of the chlorine-caked swimming pool in our neighborhood when about six boys showed up, dribbling one of the balls. Oh, well. Muggles. Can't you see me shaking my head and rolling my eyes and doing all sorts of condescending things? Good. Because I'm not.   
I would start being apologetic about annoying you with my ramblings, but I say that in every letter I send to you. Almost. But please reply rather soon.   
And thanks again for the painting. You're simply wonderful.   
  
--Lily   
  
_ She saw Alisande fly off into the dark night—the moon was hidden behind a cloudbank. Wondering how long she would have to wait for an answer, she fell asleep, still dressed.  
Next evening, her answer came. Lily quickly handed Alisande an Owl Treat and opened her cage door, then slit the letter open that Alisande had dropped on her bed.   
  
_Lil__!   
  
Sure you can come. We've got more room here than we'll ever need or use or anything else. So you're quite welcome. Don't know why you thought for an instant that you wouldn't be welcome. Eva's here—Vanessa's visiting some cousin in __Japan__. Amanda's here, the entire Quidditch team, Sirius, Remus, and Peter—of course—, several Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws I don't think you know—well, you know Sheila. She's here. And her friends. And there's someone else you haven't met yet—she's from __Wales__. Lora Tempesta is her name—her parents were killed in one of those Tom/Ministry fights. They work with the Ministry, by the way. So she's going to be coming to Hogwarts; she'll be in our year; she's Eva and Vanessa's cousin; just a year older than they are. And boy, does she live up to her last name. I expect she'll rival me and Sirius in a few months.   
Still, I'll let you judge her when you get here. My parents said they'll pick you up tomorrow around eight in the morning. It has to be that early; they've still got to go to work. Do you have a fireplace and is it working? Because if it is, they'll use the Floo Network. Write back soon.   
  
--James   
_  
Lily smiled, looking forward to a summer promising to be vastly more interesting than the last few weeks had been. Dashing to her desk, she picked up a quill and a bit of parchment.   
_  
Dear James,   
  
I can really come? Oh, wonderful! I wasn't looking forward to a vacation with only Petunia and the neighborhood brats at all. Yes, tomorrow's fine. We have a fireplace, and it's pretty clear of junk. Does it really matter if it hasn't been used in about a year and a half and had piles of paper placed haphazardly everywhere? Because if it does, you might want to find another way of picking me up. Of course, I could always clean it out. Yes. That will work. So—I'll see you tomorrow, I guess! And I'm looking forward to seeing Lora. She sounds interesting!   
  
--Lily   
  
_The next morning, seven o'clock, an extremely laconic reply came with James' eagle owl. _  
  
I thought you'd like her. Yes, the fireplace might want to be clean, unless you want to burn all of the papers.   
  
--James  
  
_ At eight o'clock and six minutes, Lily was sitting in the living room, trunk corded and otherwise ready. She had asked her father if he needed the papers in the fireplace, and he had shaken his head. This, she considered, was an extremely easy way of cleaning up. Her father was at work, and Petunia had hightailed it out of the house when she heard that a certified witch was coming to their place.   
Lily was just putting her book away when a pop came from the fireplace. Mrs. Potter appeared in the midst of several whirling pieces of flying paper. She had changed the black robes for a violet-blue that matched her eyes and brought them out beautifully, and she wore the same silver ring she had worn at the station. Her hair still fell to her waist, but this time she had placed an almost helmet-like chain of silver over it. All in all, she reminded Lily of an Eastern princess.   
Mrs. Potter held out her hand to Lily; the other hand held a wand that she was pointing towards Lily's trunk. Quickly levitating the cage and black-and-gold trunk, she smiled at the excited fifteen-year-old.   
"Ready, dear?"   
Lily was almost enraptured. The lady had the most musical tones she had ever heard anyone speak with; she could have been wonderful in operas. Nodding somewhat too energetically, she stepped in front of the fireplace, which Mrs. Potter instantly ignited. She reached into her robes and took out a pinch of greenish powder, which she threw in the fire.   
"La Versailles, dear."   
Lily almost gaped. "You—you live in _Versailles__?_"   
Mrs. Potter laughed. "Not really. The main building is a very good replica, however. Go on."   
Lily faced the green flames and stepped into them.   
"La Versailles."   
Instantly, she was whipped around and around, blinking rapidly as she tried to keep the soot from her eyes. And then, almost faster than thought, she was trying to keep from pitching forwards as she found herself standing in the Hall of Mirrors of the Chateau de Versailles.

She had visited it once; when she was eight, and she had never forgotten one inch of the carved pillars or painted ceilings. But this—this was the same, though different. It wasn't as dusty, and it was much less formal. Footsteps could be heard in some other room, faintly, and laughter was echoing through the room and hanging from the golden chandeliers.   
But the windows that faced the beautiful gardens outside of Paris in the real chateau were now looking down on the largest pure alabaster basin she had ever seen, and complete with the purest clear water and most beautiful marble statuettes of mermaids and dolphins and the like placed at carefully calculated intervals around it. A fountain in the middle of the oval lake-size pool was made of a slim and supple naiad, whirling in one spot with her marble gown rimmed with gold swirling around her, and with her hair formed of water streams. Streams of water were spurting from her wrists that were raised in the air above her head, and her golden eyes were raised towards the sky.  
Every statue had the deepest golden eyes one could ever imagine existed, and the twining rose-trees and trellises that surrounded the pool sported lovely dark red, pure white, and pale yellow buds and flowers. Evergreens and sculptured hedges and bowers formed a large lion spread out over at least three or four acres of lawns, only clear to the eye when viewed from above. And Lily could see the pool filled with about twenty boys and girls her age. Orange-yellow daylilies were placed around the pool, the trees and sculptured hedges, and the statues.   
Mrs. Potter swept along the long hall, through the replicated rooms of Marie Antoinette and the King, till she came to an encased sort of bridge, ten feet wide and lined with scarlet carpeting. White-gold banisters twined up to Lily's waist, and a crystal arch stretched all along the fifty-foot-long hallway. Underneath, Lily could see a patio, with several large scarlet satin umbrellas lined with golden Valenciennes lace placed above beautifully carven stone tables, benches, and chairs.  
When they left the hallway, they stepped into a place that made Lily feel as if she had stepped backwards several thousands of years. In the style of the ancient Egyptians, a large banquet hall loomed in front of her. Almost everything in the room was either real gold or fool's gold. Long golden divans were cushioned with royal purple, sea-green, diamond-blue, and blood-red silken pillows.   
The table, a magnificent piece of sculptured teakwood, stretched in a circle thirty feet in diameter, with seats on either side of the five-foot-wide surface. One part of the table, nearest the entrance, had been taken out so as to allow people to enter. The tablecloth was a creamy white linen, and golden fruit dishes adorned the table at intervals of ten feet. Four large golden-bronze pitchers of some drink—probably pumpkin juice Lily, thought—were set at each point of the compass around the table.   
Pillars around the room reached up into a ceiling thirty feet high, which was glass tinted yellow with gold, and doorways all around the banquet hall led to other rooms, and lightly waving silk curtains covered the doorways; deep indigo, aquamarine, pale gold, and deep scarlet. Still, though the design was of the ancient Egyptians, there was undeniably a feel of something else to it.   
Chocolate Frog wrappers were strewn in one corner, a pile of clothing had been thrown over them, as the owners had gone to the swimming pool, and quite a few books that hadn't been written during Cleopatra's time were pushed inside bookcases near the divans. It gave the hall more of a homelike feel; less formal and more like someone actually lived there. If it hadn't been for the box of Filibuster's Wet-Start, No-Heat fireworks shoved underneath the tablecloth, Lily would have suspected she had stepped into a museum.   
Mrs. Potter led Lily along the corridor opposite the large teakwood doorway, along another of the beautiful crystal and white-gold arches. This time, at the end of the hallway, they pushed aside a scarlet satin curtain, embroidered with a design of golden dragons.  
Lily let out another gasp as she entered this new and absolutely different atmosphere. It was one of the most imaginative wings of a house she had ever seen; the whole room reminded Lily of a courtyard. A patio formed out of smallish tan, white, and grey stones stretched out to form the whole floor; in the middle of it an almost delicate gazebo stretched carven vines of mahogany to the ceiling. Around the gazebo a small moat stretched only four feet wide and two deep; goldfish and waterlilies abounded in the clear water.   
Small tables were dotted carefully and symmetrically in an almost random design; low and dark, they each had a pot of iced water and a box of tea leaves in a beautiful white porcelain box marked with blue fans. Four bowls of the same material were stacked on each table, and scarlet silken cushions with the same dragons as on the doorway curtains served as seats.   
Windows artistically moulded into the stone walls let sunlight stream through pale pearl curtains; the scarlet ones had been drawn aside. The walls were covered with rice-paper paintings and calligraphic writing along with carefully woven wall hangings. Two dragons guarded the main entrance, which, like the other doorways that led to other rooms, had a hanging of strung rice on thin threads that rustled softly when a soft breeze swept through the entrances. A balcony extended around the entire square courtyard, with a beautifully carven stone banister around it, and several doorways could be seen through the banister, with scarlet and rice curtains, some drawn aside, revealing comfortable bedrooms. The roof seemed to be nonexistent; at least, the glass that covered the courtyard was so sparkling clear that it hardly was visible. Sunlight covered the courtyard, making it bright, cheerful, and summery.   
Twelve cherry blossom trees bloomed, though out of season, at regular intervals in a circle around the courtyard. They were hung with small, round lanterns made out of rice-paper, hung with scarlet tassels at the bottom, and adorned with painted characters; and the same lanterns hung from the balcony, though with small bells attached to the slightly longer tassels.  
Mrs. Potter led Lily through one of the strung-rice curtains, through a corridor hung with painted silk hangings, and, after walking up a mahogany staircase, led Lily into a room to her right, where Lily saw her black-and-gold trunk already at the foot of a mahogany divan spread with deep scarlet cushions embroidered with dragons and intricate landscapes.   
Several large fans had been hung on the walls over the pale silken wall hangings, and two beautifully folded paper lanterns of the same style as the downstairs courtyard hung at either side of the window that took up an entire wall of the room. It was covered with the rice hangings, and the scarlet satin curtains had been pulled to the sides.   
A small potted cherry blossom tree was placed opposite the bed, and a middle-sized fountain in the shape of a small god was in the middle of the room, with a small moat two feet in diameter, with smaller waterlilies planted artistically inside it. There were fish inside this one, also, but they were smaller than the ones in the courtyard.   
A large, intricate rug was arranged partly underneath the bed and partly in the area where Lily would step mornings when she swung her feet out of bed. There was a door made of what seemed like carven wooden shutters, and when Lily opened it, it was half a closet with lots of hangers and half a bathroom; but it was larger than any she had seen before. The bathtub, sink, and every other structure were marble with gold streams running through it, while smallish rugs covered the floor underneath the sink and in front of the bathtub and toilet; the rugs in the bath-and bed-room were of a soft, thick, Oriental make; scarlet with bamboo-green and sun-gold driven into them. A rice-paper lantern hung from the ceiling gave more light than three Muggle lightbulbs.   
Mrs. Potter smiled at Lily's amazement. "This is your room, dear. And I would stay and show you around, but I've got to get to work. One of our house-elves is fetching—oh, there you are!" She swept towards James' rather tired figure in the doorway. "James, dear, show Lily around while I'm gone, all right?" She didn't wait for an answer; merely vanished into thin air.   
Lily could tell James had just been dragged out of bed. Sluggishly, he moved towards a small table in her room that had a teapot like the ones in the large courtyard on it. Lily smiled. She pushed him down onto a cushion that had been placed around the table, took a blue-and-white porcelain bowl, dropped a few tea-leaves inside, and poured the icy water over it. Handing it to James, she smiled to see the speed at which he opened his eyes.  
"Thanks."   
"Well, sure. I'm staying at your house, right? So the least thing I can do is to make myself helpful."   
He grinned. "You know, you're so different from the other six hundred thousand people staying here that it makes me want to make them walk the plank or something. They seem to think that they've got every right to order our house-elves around as if they were small roaches, which not even we do. And here you are—saying that you've got every reason to make yourself helpful. I like that."   
Lily laughed. "Well, I don't know if their parents would like your making them walk the plank, but—"   
"But." He set his tea bowl down and stood up. "So, you ready to see the rest of the house?"   
She smiled. "Sure!"   
"You've already seen Versy and Cleo?"  
Lily frowned. "I've already seen _what?_"   
"Oh, sorry." He herded her out of the door. "Versailles and the Egyptian wing. It's what I called them when I was smaller, mainly because it's faster."   
"Yes, I've seen those."   
"Well, first off—" James was leading her around, showing her these things as he did so. They stepped into the Hall of Mirrors. "Mum and Dad's guests stay in the Versailles wing; we've got Mum and Dad's offices there, too; and all the awards and trophies and things my family's won—like Head Boy badges and Awards for Services to the School that they let us keep, and stuff for bravery while working at the Ministry is also there in a big glass case. The family records and portraits are there, too—they're usually painted when you turn eighteen.   
"My guests live in the Japanese courtyard, which is mainly a guest house. And the Egyptian wing is for bigshot entertaining. We've hosted several Ministry feasts, and that's where they take place. We've got another wing that's sort of in the style of Hogwarts—it's a medieval castle, that is. It's mostly for relatives, but it usually smells good, since the kitchens are located there. And then we have the main living area—in the style of the ancient Grecians. It's got our library, the family dining room, my miniature menagerie, and our bedrooms that we use when we don't have guests. And then there're the huge gardens that take up so much space I'm glad I'm not a house-elf. The wings are basically arranged in a pentagon—the gardens stretch all around the pentagon. Then, of course, there's the swimming pool—it's directly in the center of the pentagon, and _huge_.. There're fifteen feet of patio and lawn between the pool and the different buildings, which is where we've got lawn chairs and things. And every wing is connected by one of those overdressed bridges. So."

He stopped near one of the exits that led to the pool, waving his arm over it. "Feel like swimming?"   
Lily smiled. "I suppose. I'll go change."   
He grinned. "Sure. Same here—wait!"   
His yell stopped her before she reached the staircase. Lily whirled around.   
"What."   
"A warning. Do not wear a bathing suit that can come undone easily."   
"Excuse me?"   
"We've got Lora here, and her plus me and Sirius and Rem. And Peter. This is a friendly warning."   
Lily smiled. "Thanks."   
"Sure."  
Lily heeded his advice, though it wasn't as if she couldn't do otherwise, seeing that her father was rather overprotective when it came to bathing suits. The one she'd been wearing up till the beginning of the summer was black, a one-piece and had sleeves going down to her elbows, for crying out loud.   
Well, it was still a one-piece, but the sleeves had diminished to the point of non-existence, it was white, and there was a dip in the back of it. Lily had known better than to push her father any farther than that, so it had remained this way. Sweeping her hair back into a plait, she quickly knotted one of the scarlet and gold towels she had found in the closet around her waist and headed outside, for the swimming pool.   
James immediately swung himself out of the water, shaking his hair all over her. "Lily! That was fast."   
"What's the correct response to that?"   
He grinned. "Never mind. Want you to meet Lora, though." Turning back to the pool, he cupped his hands around his mouth. "Oy! Lora! Quit trying to stick Peter's toes up his nose and come here!"   
Almost seconds later, a head appeared at the edge of the pool, inches away from both of their feet.   
It was a rather interesting face; not stunningly beautiful, but rather attractive. The girl James had called Lora had wet, palm-tree brown hair, currently extremely wet, and would have hung down to her lowest rib if it hadn't been floating on the surface of the water. Storm-grey eyes twinkled beneath thick, brown eyelashes, and the dimples in her cheeks showed even while an evil, mischievous grin was evident on her face. Her ears were small, and the lobes curved around to meet the side of her head. Her cheeks were naturally a sort of peach color, while her nose was usually wrinkled as a side effect of the smile.   
Lily took this all in at a flash; she had no time to do or notice anything else, as James snatched her back from the basin's edge, almost making her lose her balance. Lily was about to say something indignant, when she noticed the more or less annoyed expression on Lora's face and the hands that had snapped for their ankles withdrawing, empty.   
"Lora Agathe Tempesta!"   
"You just _had _to move, didn't you?" Lora had a mezzo soprano tone to her voice, though it was anything but musical; it was more like a hurricane.   
"Well, Lily's still got a towel on. And, besides, she's not exactly used to you. Heck, she's not even used to me, even."   
"I take that as an insult."   
"How so?" Both Lora and James had turned to Lily.   
"Well, my friend, it's not as if you're so different from the usual that you're impossible to get used to."   
"Well, _you _are!"   
Lora laughed. "James, honestly, I don't see what that has to do with it. But hey, Lily." She stuck out a thin hand and Lily shook it, letting herself be pulled into the water.   
"Lora! What was that for?!"   
"Oh, James, for Pete's sake, stow it! Lily wasn't upset! She let me do that!"   
He turned to Lily, who had by now unknotted the towel and thrown it onto a lawn chair. "I did. Come on, James, in!"  
Lily met several scores of people from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff that day; she still retained a sort of abstainment from Sheila, but otherwise everyone was completely friendly. Eva was there, but Lily had to admit that, though rather flighty, Lora was a bit more fun to be around than the serious blonde.   
Lunch was served in the Japanese courtyard. They had been given a choice of a Japanese menu or an English one, and the majority had chosen the Japanese food. So, seated cross-legged on the scarlet cushions, sipping rather hot green tea, leek soup, and eating shrimp with fried rice and steak bits, the laughing, hot, sunburned and suntanned group of teenagers were busily engaged in seeing whether porcupines liked soy sauce (it didn't) or to see how high bowls would bounce before breaking. Lily's won, with fifteen feet, but that was mainly because of the very good Shield Charm she had put on it.   
Eva, Lora, and Lily drew into Lily's room after lunch—as they said, the pool was too crowded, and Lily's room was the only one that wasn't cluttered yet. They said the word "yet" with a very ominous tone that made Lily rather edgy about going to sleep.


	50. Lora Tempesta

Lora rolled over on her stomach on the rug, kicking her feet into the air, while Eva sat down on the bed and Lily perched on the banister outside her sliding window. They were all rather hot and red, and the magical breeze that shifted the curtains felt wonderful.   
Giving out a sort of contented sigh, Lora stretched her arms above her head. "Lily, James was right."   
Both Eva and Lily whirled on her. "James?"   
"You sound so surprised. He's been raving about you ever since he got home."   
Eva snorted. "Lily, don't listen to her. He's mentioned you about as many times as he mentioned Snape—er—Severus. Not in the same tone, of course, but still."   
Lily grinned. "That's good."   
Lora sat up abruptly. "Why?"   
"I don't want anyone raving about me. It hurts the ears and annoys the listeners."   
Eva shut her eyes tightly. "Lily. Are you _that _insane? It's a natural part of life!" She unsqueezed her eyelids. "Boy sees you, boy goes absolutely stark raving mad, boy stays absolutely stark raving mad and annoys all of his remote acquaintances hopelessly by ranting about you. A natural part of life."   
Lily's eyebrow was raised. "If _that's_ natural, then God made a serious mistake."  
"So what? Everyone makes mistakes."   
"Yeah. But that one was worse than most."   
"Oh, bother you. You're such a hopeless squasher of sentiments."   
Lily grinned. "I might just put that on my coat of arms—if I had any. _One and Only Severe Squasher of Sentiments._ How does that sound?"  
"Perfectly awful."   
"Good."   
Lora laughed, a laugh that made several of the people in the pool look up. "Lily, you're mad! Wonderful!"   
Eva was shocked beyond belief; a smile was flitting across Lily's face. "Lora?"   
"Oh!" She was gasping for breath. "I was scared for a minute that I'd be the only one as nuts as the Marauders. I am not alone! Oh, happy day! Sing a song of celebration to the skies!"   
This last part was sung in an obviously made-up tune, and the 'skies' part was a screechy high pitch, such as made Lily clap her hands loudly beside her ear so as to make certain she hadn't gone deaf.   
"_Lora!_" Both girls stared at the giggly figure in the silver bathing suit. "Have you gone _absolutely _off your rocker?"  
That didn't stop her—on the contrary, Lora, and this time Lily, too, started twitching with laughter. "Off your rocker. That sounds like your grandmother fell off her chair and landed on the cat. _Off your rocker!_"  
Eva, with feigned disgustedness, threw her hands into the air. "I give up."   
Lily laughed. "Seems like you're going to be doing that a lot from now on!"   
Wrinkling her nose, Eva uncrossed her legs. "You say that like it's a bad thing."   
"Isn't it?"   
"Around you two, no. Around you two, it's considered worthy of applause if I keep my sanity."   
"What sanity?" Lily questioned innocently, the wide grin on her face giving the lie to her tone.   
That evening, Lily and Lora had become quite close; that is, as close as two terribly sarcastic, sentiment-squashing witches could get. They had had an absurd flash of eccentricity and had decided to eat in the replicated secret rooms of Marie Antoinette; with the apple-green silk covering the walls and the white and gold sculpturing surrounding the edges of the ceiling.   
Of course, the house-elves had no idea that they were eating there, and even if so, they would probably have disapproved strongly—they were a rather snobby bunch. So they resorted to hiding greasy loaves of garlic bread, overflowing pitchers of pumpkin juice and hot green tea, buttery sweet potatoes, and large German white sausages in their towels that were knotted around their waists.   
Which, of course, resulted in the scarlet and gold towels being shoved secretly, with a lot of giggling, into the room Sirius and James were sharing—not because there was no room; quite the contrary, but the two boys figured that, one, they were more vulnerable if they had two separate rooms, the dimensions of which being fifteen feet by eighteen feet, and, two: it was more fun this way.   
Lily, Lora, and Eva agreed to that principle wholeheartedly. They had moved Lora's bed into Lily's room, and, though Eva's didn't fit around a bend in the corridor, there was still space for a third person.   
They spent the evening with lots of practice when it came to Shield Charms. True, they weren't supposed to use magic during the holidays, but Lora didn't attend Hogwarts yet, and she hadn't received a notice from the teacher that had been homeschooling her before not to use magic, so that Eva and Lily were bombarding her with ice cubes and sweet potato insides, trying to see how close they could get to hitting her in the face. Lora was obviously quite good at Charms; she emerged from the room when they had finished with dinner with only several droplets of sweet potato mush in her hair.

            Thirteen days wore on, and Lily and Lora were sticking closer together than ever before. Lily hadn't noticed it, but Eva was slowly growing more serious. Wise for her age, she realized that her friend was drawing away from her, and the stupidest thing she could do was cling to Lily in hopes of anything. Rather quieter than usual, she spent her days in the boys' room, who now officially called themselves 'the Marauders'. They knew she was depressed about something, but only at the end of two weeks did they pry it out of her.  
"Eva."   
The blonde snapped her head up. "Yes?"   
"You've avoided this for as long as you could. No more Mr. Nice Parrot."   
"Mr. Nice Parrot?"   
"I got attacked by a blue-and-gold Macaw once. Anyway, what is it? You know us—we're your friends. Come on!"   
Eva hesitated. "Sirius, honestly, I—I—"   
"I—I—I—I—I what? Eva, it's not as if you're giving away a dangerous murderess or anything."   
"Well, _actually_,--"  
"Eva!"   
"Shut up. Okay, okay. I give. It—it's about Lily."   
James instantly turned around from the mirror that was trying to convince him that his hair, was, as usual, quite impossible, and therefore there was no point trying to flatten it, because, well, it was impossible. James tried to argue with the mirror, which was, actually, completely right, and it was just getting to the point where he had a pair of scissors in his hand and was being dared by the mirror to shave it off.   
"Not with a scissors, you prat! Razor. Ar ay zee oh ar. Raayzor."   
It was at this point that James heard the mention of the name 'Lily'. He whirled around.   
"About whom?"   
Sirius grinned. "Your infatuation, you pillock. The Evans girl."   
James flushed a hideous brick red. "I am _not _infatuated with her!"  
"And my cousin, who incidentally happens to be a goldfish, just proposed to Macnair. Come _on_, my friend!"  
"Come on what?"   
"I demand a reason for the bland and absolutely devoted look your face adopts when she enters the room."   
"It does not!"   
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Proceed, Eva."   
Eva sighed. "I don't know—not really. It's Lora."   
James flopped back down. "Oh."   
"I mean, it's both of them."   
"Eva!"   
"Oh—sorry. It's just that Lora's monopolizing Lily, and that they're hardly ever talking to me anymore. They're usually coming up with strange things, like doing cartwheels on the roof of the tower on top of the library, wearing large gray wigs, or—"   
Several long strands of red hair hanging from the window, attached to Lily's face, interrupted. "Or hanging upside down from windowsills, eavesdropping on conversations. Does this concern me?"   
Her wide, somewhat impertinent grin was unnerving to all three in the room as she dropped lightly, like a cat, from the roof into the room.   
Sirius stepped forward. He had read something in Eva's eyes that James hadn't paid any attention to, and he was darned well going to confront Lily about this.   
"Lily. We. Need. To. Talk."   
"Sure." Lily shrugged, throwing her hair over her shoulder and taking his arm. "Where to, kind sir?"   
"Preferably a padded cell. As is, though, Remus' room will do," Sirius shot back dryly.   
As soon as he brought her inside the room, he made sure the door was shut and locked. "We have intruders," was his explanation.   
"So," Lily asked; "what is this about?"   
"You."   
"I figured as much. What about me?"   
Lily knew where this was heading. In all honesty, she didn't mean to leave Eva behind. It was just that Eva was so commonplace and ordinary—while Lora, though more materialistic and careful, was more interesting to be around. She was in no danger of being a small puppy attached to Lora; somewhat like Peter was now—Lora was not enough like her to do so—and anyway, Lily valued her independence too much.   
"And Eva. Lily, you don't have any idea how much you hurt Eva when you run off like this. Your other friends I can understand, but Eva's stuck by you when no one else would; when you were ignored by every self-respecting streetwalker."   
"Hey!"   
"Well, you were."   
"You are intimating that I associate with streetwalkers."   
"Don't you?"   
Lily ran an eye up and down him, rather slowly. "I suppose I do."  
"Lily! I didn't call you in here for you to be a sarcastic little brat. At least try to stop this! I'm appealing to whatever emotion you claim to have—Eva's our friend, and we're not standing for this. Lora—Lora—" he found this hard to say—"Lora isn't as wonderful as all that. I want you to promise me this—that you'll apologize to Eva. After that, I don't care what you do, as long as you're friendly about it—say you don't want to associate with her, if it amuses you; just don't hurt her."   
Somewhat unexpectedly, Lily's shoulders sagged. "I suppose."   
"Good girl."   
"I'm a puppy?"   
"You are a lapdog. And one that bites. Come on—we'd better get back before James gets any ideas in his head."   
"Ideas?"   
Sirius sighed. "You're hopeless. Never mind." He unlocked the door and pushed her slowly in Eva's direction, smiling to himself as he witnessed the somewhat tearful apology. Tearful on both sides.   
Sirius knew exactly what an impact on her life the talk they just had was going to have. He knew very well that without a steadying anchor—Eva—to help Lily to stay on the tightrope, she would fall while flipping on it, instead of sensibly planting her feet.   
In other words, Lily was fully capable of becoming someone dangerous—someone wanted by the police in the Muggle world and the Ministry wizards and dementors in the wizarding one. Eva, he knew, would prevent that—for the time being. And, hopefully, if he could get some sensible boy to tie himself to her, it would permanently prevent that. Of course, he didn't mention the particular boy he was thinking of.   
To mention the particular boy he was thinking of would be more than suicidal. It would be stupid. He was best friends with a boy that was hopelessly head over heels—at least, so Sirius thought—for Lily, though he didn't know it or admit to it. Sirius was presently trying to convince himself that James was being a complete and utter prat—more than usual, that is—about Lily, and that he would come to his senses quickly. He left his two other girlfriends, didn't he? Well then! And he and Lily fought too much. And anyway, she was only fifteen. He was only sixteen. No one discovers true love at that age. Fairy tales didn't count.   
That night, Lora and Eva had almost pushed Lily off of the bed while they were sleeping, so, awakened by the cool breeze flowing over her, she flung her eyes open.   
Moonlight spilled through the glass ceiling, and pearly beams reflected the darkness in her room. Suddenly, something impatient awoke in her, something that couldn't stand to be inside closed rooms anymore. They had fallen asleep in their bathing suits and towels, since they had gone swimming at ten-thirty. Lily quickly stood up and went to her closet.   
The first time she had seen the closet, it had had a few things already inside; a couple of pairs of robes. One was to cover up a swimsuit, but no one ever really wore a clear pearly white silk flowing trailing pair of robes casually on a summer day. Lily slipped them over her head, and, after tying them at the waist, slipped out of the room by way of the window.   
In his own room, James stirred in his sleep. He had heard something—something strange and not usual. Finally managing to kick Sirius aside, he stepped to his window. There he stopped, almost frozen, at what he saw.   
There was a round hole fifteen feet up from the ground, facing the rising sun on Midsummer Night's Eve, used by the owls for the morning mail delivery. Usually, the moon or several odd clouds were visible through it, but now there was a ghost-like creature perched inside it, back against the arch and a long, white, filmy gown draping down into the courtyard. When looked at closer, it could just pass for a pair or robes, tied at the waist with a sash of the same material and the shoulders showing above the long, draping sleeves. The girl—at least, that was what he guessed—was staring at something outside—he couldn't tell what.   
Lily had made her way along the balcony to the small window, and there had placed her back against the brick and her face towards the moonlight. The feeling of impatience and the surrounding cage was slowly vanishing as she found herself in a position of danger. Unlike many of her friends, though, Lily enjoyed every moment that she lived when she was in any sort of peril. It gave her a thrill to know that she wasn't safe, wasn't protected on every side.   
James knew that the figure was in danger of falling and killing herself, but he was glued in place. He couldn't take his eyes off of the flowing, long, dark hair and the ghostly figure. It seemed vaguely familiar to him—somewhat as if he had known it for years. Suddenly, a picture of Lily climbing the walls of the Hogwarts castle in their third year came to his mind, and he knew!   
Lily herself was making up poetry in her head, something that was sad, perilous, but at the same time, full of enjoyment. Giving a deep, heartfelt sigh, she stared over the grounds, then started with some fear and more surprise as something dark jumped up beside her.   
"James?"   
"I woke up—I couldn't sleep. I went to the window and saw you here—" He didn't continue. Swinging his broom up beside him, he searched her face, elvish and otherworldly in the moonlight.   
"Why did you come here?"   
Lily sighed again. "I woke up and felt restless."   
He nodded. "Oh. All right, then. You all right, though?"   
"Ye-es." She shrugged. "I was sort of thinking about Lora."   
"Lora?" James was interested. "What about her?"   
Immediately, Lily's trusting and open mood vanished, and she withdrew inside herself. "Nothing."   
"Really?"   
"Yes—nothing. It wasn't important. Just about what Sirius told me."   
"Sirius?" Lily couldn't see the rather confused look on his face.   
"Yes—he told me I was leaving Eva behind. Nothing important."   
"Oh." James shrugged. For a minute he had thought—no, he hadn't.   
"So—do you like this house?"   
Lily's brilliant forest-green eyes turned fully on him. Her answer wasn't the gushing kind, not the kind that's given because one wants another invitation, but heartfelt.   
"It's enchanting. I've never seen anything like it."   
James blushed somewhat. "Er--thanks."   
"No need."   
He grinned. "You're rather old-fashioned; you know that?"   
Lily laughed merrily. "I read too much not to be."   
"What does that have to do with it?"   
"Well, if—James!" She suddenly turned piercing, worried eyes on him.   
"Yes?"   
"You haven't told anyone about—about Tom, have you?"   
"Why?"   
"Well—he told me that the Ministry attacks have been increasing lately."   
James swiftly turned towards her. "Really? How—why—Lily, I swear I didn't spill!" His eyes were opened wide in pleading hope, and Lily couldn't help but believe him.   
"Then _how_? How on earth could they start attacking Tom? I don't understand. He's supposedly moved his location several times—and they keep catching up with him."  
"Er—"   
"James—"   
"Lily, I didn't do it. I swear it on everything I value."   
Lily's shoulders sagged. "Good. I was—I was hoping you hadn't. I thought I knew you wouldn't betray us."   
"Us?"   
"Yes—Tom, Litharelen, me—and everyone else on Tom's army. I'm counted as one of them—I've been counted as one of them since I helped Litharelen. And not only by Tom and his followers—but by Sikora, if he knew about me."   
"You—you mean you're legally an outlaw or something?"   
"You could put it that way." She saw his face tense up. "I couldn't leave Lith to die—can't you see that? She's my friend—Merlin's beard, she's Tom's fiancée! I had to help, don't you see?"   
He didn't answer for the moment. It seemed now that, more than ever, a small elvish creature was speaking to him, and he was enraptured—entranced—she had a way with words that made Shakespeare seem second-class. It wasn't just her words—it was the way she said them, with her soul, and not her mind.   
James nodded. "I see."   
Lily smiled. "Thanks."   
"So—" James leaned forward—"any more visits to Voldemort planned?"   
Lily laughed. "Not planned exactly. You really like it there, don't you?"   
He smiled. "Yes. Of course."   
"I'm glad."   
"Why?"   
"Er—no reason. I'm just glad."   
"So, any visits coming up in the near future?"   
A smile flashed across Lily's face. "How about now?"   
"I'm not dressed."   
"Neither am I. No one cares if you show up there in your pajamas; come on." She pulled the necklace out from underneath the filmy white cloth—the necklace that she never took off now; though she had added the bottle of healing cordial to the chain—and nodded to him.   
"We've got about an hour. Hang on tight. You want your broom?"   
James grinned. "Sure, why not." He put an arm tightly around her waist and closed his eyes tightly when he heard the familiar ting of precious stone against a hard surface.   
Soon they were whizzing through the air, landing in somewhat shallower water than last time. When they surfaced, they could clearly see the sandy stretch of land, with smoke rising from what appeared to be a boulder. Both pairs of eyes flashed with excitement, and the next minute, they were streaking for shore.   
Lily, owing to the funny effects the Alendoren Cove had on her, had much better eyesight than James, and she had spotted Tom's thin figure, wrapped in black robes, talking to someone with furs on his collar. Curious as usual, she made straight for them.  
She surfaced again as soon as the water was too shallow for her to swim anymore. Wringing her hair out, she stepped out of the water, the white robes trailing behind her on the waves.   
"Tom?"   
Tom immediately whirled around. "Lily! How are you! We haven't seen you in quite some time!" He strode over to the fifteen-year-old, holding out his hand. "Come. I want you to meet someone."   
He led her towards the wizard with the furs on his burgundy robes and the toothbrush moustache. "Igor Karkaroff, Lily Evans. She's our little mascot around here."   
Lily smiled and held out her hand, and Karkaroff did the same. "Pleased to meet you, I'm sure." He lifted his head. "My Lord, where ever did you come by this child?"   
Tom smiled. "She found me."   
Lily swerved around to see James, who was stepping out of the waves. She lightly ran to him and pulled him along. "Tom, I brought James—this time. He—he wanted to see this place again, so—well."   
Grinning, Tom clapped James on the back, who was currently trying to get rid of a cupful of water that had gone down his windpipe. "Sure. I don't mind."   
Lily had something else on her mind. "Tom?"   
"Yes?"   
"He—" she pointed Karkaroff—"he called you _My Lord_. Is that what you're to be called nowadays?"  
Suddenly, Tom laughed, the same high, cold laugh that Lily had become familiar with over the years. "Lily, I'm their master—they chose to serve me. Lord Voldemort is my title."   
"Er." Lily frowned.   
"What? Does it sound ridiculous?"   
"Oh—no—but, Tom, do I have to call you that?"   
He smiled. "Don't bother. You're closer to me than a sister—_that_ would be ridiculous. But, Lily—" he looked towards the slowly setting moon—"please—I need to talk to Karkaroff. Go inside to Lith—she'll take care of you. I'll be with you in a second."  
Quietly, Lily took James' wrist and pulled him inside the cave, where they were immediately greeted by a musical neigh and a "Lily!" from Litharelen, who had been dozing on a rock in the corner.   
Litharelen was tired; Lily could see that. She had faint purple shadows underneath her eyes, which were anxious and worried, a lavish contrast to the rich dark green gown she was wearing, belted with silver leaves and jade stones. However, before anyone else could say a word, a loud howl came from outside; a yell full of pain, anguish; an ear-splitting scream. James and Lily whirled towards the doorway.   
There, a strange sight met their eyes. Karkaroff was cringing on the ground, grasping his left arm, his face twisted grotesquely in pain.   
Tom lightly kicked him with the toe of his boot. "Rise, Karkaroff."   
It took him some time, but finally the lump of misery got to its feet and let go of its arm—Lily could now see what was on it that had hurt him so much.   
Branded into the flesh was the skull with the snake coming out of its mouth, black ash pressed into the skin and redness puffing all around the lines. Tom was putting his wand back into his robes.   
"Igor Karkaroff, you have joined the Order of Death. A faithful member of the Death Eaters, do you now solemnly swear to obey my every command, faithfully fulfill your duties, remain loyal to my person and my followers, and be willing to give up your life for one of us?"   
Karkaroff panted out a few words. "Yes—Master—My Lord."   
Tom nodded. "Await my future commands at home. When your mark of honor burns, you are to Apparate instantly to my side. You may go."   
Karkaroff lost no time in Disapparating, and James didn't blame him. He would have done that twice as quickly if it had been himself in that position. He winced as Tom turned to them.   
"You two look as if you've seen an extremely bloody, mangled corpse. What?"   
"Tom?" Lily's voice shook a little. "Is that your little initiation ceremony?"   
"Yes." Tom's voice was quite matter-of-fact. "I have over a hundred followers."   
James personally couldn't see how over a hundred people could wish to get a large skull branded into their arms, but he judged it wise not to say anything. Listening was more interesting, anyway, so he busied himself with picking a wood splinter off of his broom while intently paying attention to the conversation.   
"Tom, you're sure that all of them are trustworthy?"   
"Sure I'm sure! They're too scared of me to betray me."   
"Tom—that may change."   
"It won't," Tom stated confidently. "Never. You just watch; some day the world will cringe at the mention of my name."  
Lily sighed. He was too stubborn and over-confident—he'd be brought down to earth with a thump quickly if this didn't stop—most likely the thump of his own body.   
"Tom, I wish you wouldn't do this."   
He looked down at her. "Lily, it's too late to turn back. I've killed a good number of Ministry wizards. I'm a wanted man. Stopping is impossible. You can see that, can't you?"   
Lily sighed, her shoulders dropping and the erect attitude slumping. "I suppose. But—but—"   
He didn't let her continue. "Lily, I've always dreamed of ruling the world. I'm finally getting a chance…" Tom's voice, dreamy and almost ghostly, jerked Lily back to reality. "Yes, by murdering innocent people. Goodnight, Tom."   
She took James by the arm and retreated into the cave; Tom remained outside, staring at the moon. Lily, on her part, was furious. She had never thought that this would go that far—this was a murder society. She couldn't care less about her own life; that she knew—but these were innocent Muggles. Her _mother _had been a Muggle. Her whole _family, _for crying out loud, were Muggles. And for all she knew, they could be the next victims. Boiling mad, she slammed her friend against the wall, grasped his arm in a painful grasp, and hit her necklace viciously against the stone.  
He was still carrying his broom, which was a good thing, since both of them hit the brick window at an odd angle, lost their balance, and fell abruptly. James was able to swing his broom underneath himself, and pulled Lily onto it before they hit the ground.   
He took off towards the top of the Egyptian wing, which was simply a solid, flat cedar ceiling; preferable to the spires of Versailles or the slants of the Japanese courtyard. Pulling his broom up lightly before they hit the roof, both of them toppled onto the wooden surface, Lily still out of breath with frustrated, mind-boggling oaths uttered nonstop under her breath. James put a hand on her shoulder.   
"Lily! It's all right. We're out of there. It's all right."   
Her head snapped up. "Who ever said it wasn't, you imbecile!"   
"Hey!" James was genuinely hurt. "I didn't do anything!"   
"No, just decided to kill me again! What was that for?"   
"What was what for? I saved your little life!"   
"After you managed to come rather close to killing me!"   
"How did I kill you? Just answer me that, Miss High-and-Mighty!"   
"Oh, you're resulting to insults now? You little lump of hairballs. You slimy gutless frightened stuck-up Quidditch player!"   
James had no idea how she could manage to hiss out a word like "Quidditch" so well when there wasn't an 's' in it. But he didn't leave himself time to think; he was already coming back.  
"And what about you? You little outlawish mascot of a tribe of murderers! I don't want to know what you had to do to become their mascot!"   
Lily's face was turning white with rage. "I wasn't cowed into it, as you will be! You know perfectly well that Tom won't stand for anyone that knows about him to stay neutral. You will be begging for mercy under his foot—and I—and I—I'll stand there and laugh. Watch you squirm and laugh."   
She had touched a nerve. What she said had had truth in it, and Lily knew it. She received an odd joy from the sight of his throat constricting and his eyes almost turning red with fear.   
"You—you—" His voice was nothing but a cracking sound. "You wouldn't dare!"   
"Turn you over to Tom! Oh, yes, I would, son! You know me; you know I would dare!"   
The worst thing about that, James thought, was that she really _would.  
_ "You're out of my house! Out of my presence! Leave this instant! I'm not going to stand having you soiling this ground anymore!"   
With a sneer, Lily bowed exaggeratedly; the bow of a dancing master. "Of course, Your Majesty." Then her manner flashed with anger again. "How _dare _you even _think _that I would even _consider _staying in this—this place even longer than I had to? I wouldn't if you threatened the whole of the human race with the Cruciatus Curse if I didn't. I'm leaving; but don't imagine that it's because of your order."  
With that, she swung herself down the wall, landing lightly on the crystal bridge. Running along it, she reached the balcony of the Japanese courtyard, ran along the rail, and slipped inside the closest door. Making her way out of the room that housed two yawning, confused girls, she dashed into her own room, pulled on a few clothes, threw all of the rest of her clothing silently into her trunk, and pulled it downstairs, accomplishing this in less than three minutes.   
She found a fireplace in the wall, very neatly camouflaged; as she approached it, it burst into flame. Lily dipped her hand into the basin of Floo powder that was sitting on the mantel, threw a pinch into the fire, and cried out "Philtrum Domus!"   
Instantly, she found herself whipping around in the soot and mayhem of the Floo network; within seconds, she was preventing herself from falling flat on her face in the entrance hall of Severus' home.  
She stood up and shook her head hard, trying to banish the headache that had resulted from the furious screaming. When her eyes finally focused, they landed on a rather confused and surprised figure in an armchair, facing her.   
"Severus, don't ask."   
He put the notebook he had been writing in away and stood up. "I wasn't going to. Is this a rather late acceptance of my offer?"   
Lily bit her lips. "Severus, I'm not in the mood for sarcasm. I am in the worst mood you have ever seen me in, and you may thank Potter for that. Preferably, though, you may punch him in the nose."   
Severus stepped forward. "I'm sorry. Care to tell me what it was about?"   
"Maybe later. I know this is extremely forward and sudden and everything else besides, but I want to ask you if it'll be possible for me to stay here for at least the night. Our house isn't connected to the Floo Network."   
Severus shrugged. "It's fine with me—I won't wake my parents up now, but they probably won't mind your staying here for—" he checked his watch—"several hours. It's four in the morning. How did you two manage to get into a fight this early?"   
"I warned you."   
"You did?"   
"I said, quite plainly: 'Do not ask.'"   
"Oh, right." He retied the black bathrobe he was wearing. "None of our guest rooms are open—all I can offer is the couch." He gestured towards a comfortable-looking dark blue sofa. "Is that all right? I know it can't match up to Potter's silks and satins, but—"   
Lily smiled. "Thanks."   
He grinned back at her; then vanished up a stairway. He soon came back with a pillow and blanket.   
Spreading them over the couch, he held out his hand for her trunk.   
"I'll get that out of your way. You're sure you won't want anything now?"   
"I'm sure. Thanks, Severus." She flashed him a smile before her countenance was overcome with fatigue that followed the rage. Yawning, Lily slipped underneath the blanket; it only took her a moment before she fell asleep.


	51. Severus' house and a conversation in the...

The next morning, she woke up at ten; exhaustedly, she flung the sheet of red tangles out of her face and almost hit Mr. Snape in the head with them. A tall man, he had shoulder-length black hair and black eyes, just like his son, and over his thin frame he wore bottle-green robes. Instantly, she sat up, rather frightened at the thought of staying overnight at a boy's house without asking his parents.   
"Oh, dear—I'm terribly sorry, sir! I never meant—"   
He stopped her flow of apologies with a thin hand. "It's quite all right. Severus tells us you were not welcome in the house you were staying at?"   
Lily's cheeks turned faintly pink. "Yes, sir."   
"Well, then, you are welcome here as long as you wish. Severus will show you to your room as soon as we finish replacing the sheets."   
She smiled. "Thank you, sir. Thank you very much."  
Mr. Snape Disapparated to his office, and Severus came into view, carrying a sort of breakfast tray.   
"I brought you breakfast. It's not what you'd get at Lucius' or Potter's, but—hey, it's food." He set the wooden tray down in front of her, and Lily ravenously started to attack the rolls and marmalade.   
He took her up to her room when she had finished; showed her the bathroom, and then left her to herself to change the clothes she had slept in for something else. When the door shut, Lily let her eyes rove around the room.   
It was quite obvious that Severus' parents weren't half as well off as Eva or James, but their house was large enough for two guest rooms. The guest rooms themselves weren't too large; white curtains hung from the windows, the cedar daybed had an assortment of different-colored pillows and a handmade afghan over the blue quilt, and the walls were painted a pale sky-blue.   
There was a latchhooked rug on the floor in front of the bed, and a desk and chair were placed in front of the window. There was a simple fireplace with a few pictures on the mantel, and a door opened to show a closet with many hangers. All in all, it was a quaint little room, and Lily had the feeling that she enjoyed it more than the almost ridiculous ornamentation of the Versailles replica.   
She unpacked her trunk swiftly, hanging up the assortment of robes and Muggle clothing she had brought with her. For herself, after a long, hot bath, she threw on a pair of jeans and a dark green shirt, not as disgustingly tight as some shirts she had seen Serena wear, but then again, not the sleep-shirt length. She pulled her hair into a sort of cross between a ponytail and a bun, slipped into a pair of black house-slippers, and stepped downstairs, where Severus was waiting in his armchair of the night before.   
"Hallo. You look—you look nice," he added lamely as he set the same notebook from the night before on a table.   
Lily smiled. "Thanks. I suppose."   
"There's no 'I suppose' about it. You look nice."   
The red mounted her cheeks again. "Please don't. I hate compliments."   
He pushed his hair out of his face. "That's right—I'm sorry—you already told me that. I've got a suggestion for you, though."   
Lily smiled brightly. "Really?"   
"Yes, really. I live next to the ocean." He watched agreeably as a light kindled the sparks in her eyes. "Like to go there?"   
She immediately flung herself at his neck, jumping insanely and rather frightening the white cat on the sofa, along with Severus.   
"Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!"  
Fifteen minutes later, they were both heading for the shore; Lily in the white bathing suit with a pair of black robes thrown over it, was carrying her sketchbook; Severus, who didn't like swimming much, was taking his own sketching things and what he had admitted to be a journal.   
Once there, Lily seemed to have become suddenly and intensely obsessed with the sea, and Severus smiled as he saw her getting a kick out of throwing herself into five-foot waves.   
Later, when she was quite tired, she was lying on her back in the sand, trying fruitlessly to shake the clumps of sand from her hair. Frustrated, she sat up just as Severus put his pencil down and handed her his sketchbook.   
It was one of her; not done with colored pencil or paints; simply a charcoal sketch. It was of her head, rising in the water, with a wave clashing into her head, and she was laughing. Lily smiled.   
"You're very good."   
"Thanks." Severus took the book back; at least he held out his hand for it. Lily didn't hand it to him.   
"Mind if I look through it?"   
A look of consternation crossed his face. "Lily—I'd rather you didn't."   
"Why not?"   
"No reason—I just wish you wouldn't."   
Lily was still grinning. "Why not?"   
"Lily—I don't especially like people looking at what I do—"   
"Nonsense."  
He could see the point of that; after all, he had just handed her something he'd drawn. Still, he didn't like giving in. "Lily—please. Pleasepleasepleaseplease!"   
This time, Lily looked up. "What's so terrible about my looking at what you've drawn? It's not as if I'm going to wreck it or give it to the Marauders—not on the best terms with them anyway. You know that."   
Severus gave, sitting back against a boulder and throwing his hands into the air. "Fine. Fine. I give. You know, you can usually charm your way into whatever you want."   
She rapped him softly on the knuckles, in the style of a old-maidish schoolteacher. "None of that!"   
Lily pulled the sketchbook towards her, flipping to the first page. It opened to reveal a portrait of a rather kindly-looking lady, with shoulder-length hair and dark wizard robes. Done in black-and-white, it nevertheless could not be mistaken for Severus' mother—he had her nose and eyes.   
The next one was also in charcoal as they had seen it first; riding in boats as the great castle loomed up before them. Lily was amazed.   
"How old were you when you did this?"   
Severus shrugged. "Eleven. I did it my first night in the Great Hall. I didn't draw much—quit for about three years, and then only in the past year or so did I start it again.   
Her eyebrows went up. "You did all this when you were _eleven?_"  
"Yeah."   
She flipped through. There were about seven more of scenes in the castle; a greenhouse, Professor McGonagall senior, the dungeons, a potion bubbling inside a cauldron, a wand emitting several sparks in the Charms classroom, the Great Hall with the floating candles, the Slytherin common room, and a portrait of Lucius.   
Then the style changed, along with the style of the signature at the bottom left corner and the dates; they moved forward three years, and the drawings were more advanced. Lily nodded appreciatively at one of Professor Trelawney; this one had oversized the usual glasses, the head filled almost the entire page, and the body was the size of a match. It was a very nice and rather amusing caricature.   
The next one she flipped to was one of her, head bent over a book and her hair falling in her face in a classroom. He still stuck with charcoal and lead pencil; it seemed to be his favorite medium. She turned the page, and there she was again; only standing in a corridor, books clasped to her chest and her schoolbag hanging from her shoulder.   
She turned another page; there she was again; in the center of the picture, set at breakfast in the Great Hall; Eva and Amanda were talking to her on either side. Then, another scene was put down on paper; she was clapping wildly at a Quidditch game.   
The next few she went through were all of her; some with friends, some without—but she was always the centerpoint. Lily looked up at Severus, who by now was slouching down so far that his knees were effectively hiding his face.   
"I asked you not to look…"   
Matter-of-factly, Lily turned another page. "They're very good. I like them. _You're_ very good."  
She didn't notice the pink tinge that came to his cheeks.   
The next one she had to laugh at. She was having a blazing row with Serena in front of the doors to the Great Hall, and from the look on Serena's face, it looked like Lily was winning.   
Lily went through every drawing he'd done till she got to the back of the book; the rest were all of her; with an occasional giant squid or Grey Lady thrown in every ten pages. When she came to the picture of her in the sea, she shut the book and handed it back, tactfully avoiding his rather embarrassed glance.   
"Lily—I guess you might not want to stay with us anymore, but—"   
"Nonsense." Her crisp tone jerked him more into reality. He sat up. "You took me in kindly when I'd just been shut out of someone's house I thought was my friend. I'm not going to leave abruptly. Besides, I wish you'd give me drawing lessons."   
He brightened at that, then his half-smile plummeted. "You get Potter to do that for you. I'm not teaching the same lesson twice."   
Lily looked up. "_You_ taught him how to draw?"  
"Yes," his simple answer was. "He came to me one day, saying that he knew I was good at it, and that he needed to learn. I don't know why I did, though."   
She smiled. "That explains it."   
"What?" he frowned.   
"James gave me an extremely elaborate painting for my birthday—I didn't know he could draw. That explains it."   
"Oh—right, he said he wanted to do something for you."   
"Oh. I see."   
"Only reason I taught him, I think. Otherwise I probably would have done something else, most likely in the nature of a hex."   
"Severus!"   
"I can't help it. My wand has a bad habit of attracting my hand to it and making me pull it out of my robes."   
Lily rolled her eyes. "_Boys_."  
"Hey! You say that like it's a bad thing!"   
She grinned mischievously. "And it isn't?"   
She stayed at Severus' house for a week; then her father wanted her back home; Petunia had had several disasters that included dumping used bleach onto a bed of flowers. So, when she received the command to come back home, it wasn't really expected, but she could understand it.   
She packed her things quickly, and within ten minutes, she was downstairs in the Snapes' living room, where Severus was waiting for her.   
He still wrote in the journal every chance he got, and he was extremely thankful that Lily wasn't the nosy type—like that group of idiots—what did they call themselves?—Oh, right,--_Marauders_. If she were like them…  
He looked up as Lily walked in the door, trying to drag her trunk inside. Immediately, he jumped up, lending a hand with it.   
"Thanks."   
"No problem."   
She dropped down in the nearest chair, as did he. Both of them were wondering if their backs had broken.   
Severus spoke first. "Lily?"   
"Yes?"   
"I'll miss you."   
She laughed. "Don't worry. I'll see you again when school starts, remember?"   
"Yeah…"   
"Well, then!"   
Any further conversation they might have had was terminated, as Mr. Snape Apparated into the room, looking rather tired.   
"Lily, ready? Your fireplace was connected to the Floo network for about an hour, so we'd better go."   
"Yes, sir." She jumped up and took her trunk handle; he took the other one. Throwing a pinch of Floo powder in the fireplace, he took a deep breath.   
"The Evans home."  
  
The only highlights of the rest of Lily's summer were two letters; one she recieved from Eva, whose owl (from the Potters' owlery) had been waiting at her house for several days.   
  
_Lily,   
You left us! Just like that! Okay, so I don't know exactly what happened, but from the yelling that went on in Mrs. Potter's study after she called James in there, I got the impression that you two got into a fight and then he kicked you out of the house.   
I am now scarred for life. It's a marvel that James doesn't already have ten different shades of poop kicked out of him by either his mother or Sirius. I never want to see his mother that mad again, and definitely not at me.   
Sirius is being a nice little angel who's fed up with his two friends fighting all the time, but we know better than that.   
Where'd you go, by the way? James said he saw you vanishing into the fireplace, but he didn't know where you said to go. This is a quote unquote from him:   
"I don't know or care where she went. I'm glad she's gone. Most likely she went and got herself blown up. Oh, dear God! What if she accidentally pronounced the place wrong and ended up somewhere like __Greenland__? Or what if she went to Snape's house or Malfoy's, and then they abused her or something? What if…"--here he had to be silenced by Sirius and me. We sat on him, that is. Lora was the one who tickled his feet.   
Lily, I get the impression that he's pretty depressed that you left, anyway. And, come on, it can't have been that bad a fight. We miss you! And Lora, too. It seems that she's extremely angry that there isn't another insane girl around here who will do things like carve trees into the shape of a lightningbolt or something mad like that. So. Yeah. But we want you to come baaack!!   
--Eva   
P.S.: Amanda says to add her name to the signature.   
--Eva and Amanda   
P.P.S.: Lora says to add her name to the signature.   
--Eva, Amanda, and Lora   
P.P.P.S: Now the rest of the world and his wife wants me to add their names.   
--The world and his wife._  
  
Lily smiled a bit, but she knew what her answer was going to be without even asking her father. She pulled out a roll of parchment and dipped her quill in the ink.   
  
_The world and his wife:   
No, I can't come back. In the first place, my father won't let me; in the second place, I don't want to. Shove that up Mr. Potter's nose along with Peter's toes.   
Yes, I'm still angry. It was only a burst of temper on both our parts, but I'm still angry. Tell him that I hold grudges longer than he can imagine. Tell him I will hold this one as long as I feel like holding it. He knows I will.   
--Lily_  
  
She sent that off with Alisande, disdaining the owl that had been sent her. Not even bothering to watch it fly away, she slammed the door of her room loudly as she went downstairs, down to face a father that was hardly ever home and a sister that detested magic. Fun, fun, fun.   
  
When there was only a month of the summer holidays left, a Hogwarts owl flew in her window at seven in the morning, dropping its letter on the foot of Lily's bed and flying off with a screech. Lily, recognizing the Hogwarts crest, instantly slit it open.   
It was about the size of last year's letter, the one that had had her prefect appointment on it. She pulled out the first sheet.   
  
_Dear Miss Evans,   
We are pleased to inform you of your scores for the Ordinary Wizarding Levels (O.W.L.s). We would like to remind you that these are internationally standardized exams and that your score reflects your progress in comparison to other young wizards and witches of your age.   
The amount of Ordinary Wizarding Levels you may hope to obtain is thirty; though hardly five wizards and witches per magical school obtain above twelve.   
Your placement is, out of the fifth year Hogwarts examinees: 1 out of 151   
Your placement is, out of the fifth year European examinees: 1 out of 18,954   
Your placement is, out of the fifth years attending magical schools, excluding homeschools: 1 out of 10,984,853   
You have earned the honorable degree of twenty-two (22) Ordinary Wizarding Levels (O.W.L.s).   
With our congratulations, we are   
  
The International Board of School Directors  
  
_ Here followed a rather long list of signatures; one hundred and fifteen, if Lily had bothered to count. She didn't bother. She was, quite frankly, and for once, stunned and speechless.  
Her father was so proud of her when she showed him the letter, she thought she'd need to gag him and tie him up before the day was over if he kept emitting sounds like "Oh, honey, we're so proud of you! That's wonderful!" and hugging her till her bones were to the point of cracking. Her father and Petunia made a cake for her, and they threw a smallish party for her that evening; ending with seventy-five pounds to spend at Diagon Alley. All in all, Lily reflected, it was a wonderful day.  
Still, the excitement wore off after a while, and after putting her new prefect badge—which had come with the letter, along with her list of school supplies—away from the mischievous child Petunia was babysitting nowadays, she couldn't wait for school to start—life was quickly getting extremely uninteresting, and she was looking forward to days when she had to quickly jump away from explosions or skip bak from moving staircases.   
Lily was rather relieved when the time came to return to Diagon Alley and stock up on her school supplies, and she went there alone, as her father had to drop her off on her way to work and Petunia gave summer schoolwork as an excuse. Lily rather liked it this way; she could think more when she was alone.   
She was getting to be quite well-known in the Leaky Cauldron; the familiar redhead was greeted with waves from the people at the tables and from behind the counter. Smiling back, she made her way to the alley behind the pub, pulled out her wand, and entered the alley.  
Crowded as usual, Lily had a rather hard time making her way to Madam Malkin's robes for All Occasions; she had shot up so much in the past year that her old school ones were hanging above her ankles.   
Madam Malkin still was terribly talkative, but Lily didn't mind as much as she had in her first year. She emerged with four sets instead of the required three; she knew that she usually tore up at least one pair while in the Alendoren Cove every year.   
The only thing she didn't have out of her Potions supply was armadillo bile, and it was relatively easy to find. The friendly brunette that worked at the apothecary was relieved to find someone that wouldn't try to get dragon liver at ten Sickles instead of fifteen, so she was quite helpful and Lily made it out quickly.   
Her wand was in tip-top condition; no hairs were poking out or anything, but she purchased a small bottle of polish, just in case. In case of what, she didn't know, but she had money to spend.   
Books—Flourish and Blotts was packed with as many Hogwarts students as it was legal to hold—if there was any such thing as a legal limitation on occupants of the store.  
_Controlling Feelings, Emotions, and Actions_ was rather easy to find; it was near the front of the store. Professor Cauldwell was obviously advancing rather faster than he was last year; not that Lily minded, of course not; she was almost the only one that applauded him for doing so.   
_An Advanced Guide to Transfiguration _was in the back of the store, and Lily had the luck to grab the last one there was on the shelf. As it was, she came close to getting strangled by a large, burly seventeen-year-old dressed in the brightest red she had ever seen.   
The rest of her books were stacked in the back; they were almost covered with a tarpaulin that hadn't been removed and a _Sale_sign that had fallen down.   
Lily caught them up quickly, dumped them in the slightly larger cauldron she had been assigned to buy, and left the store as soon as possible, almost staggering under the weight.  
It was all the shopping she needed to do, and with difficulty, she threaded her way past the students ogling the new _Myriad Centennial_, a broom on display in _Quality Quidditch Supplies_ and the elderly witches in large red hats blocking the alley with their demonstration banner against the Azkaban dementors.  
Lily had almost made it to the Leaky Cauldron, but just as she was a step before entering the dusty alley, two boys bounced out at her, somewhat wet and more than somewhat energetic.   
Remus smiled at her shyly. "Hello, Lily."   
Lily's wand polish slipped from her hand. "Hello."   
Sirius clapped her on the back. "Oh, good, you're speaking to us! We were kind of worried there for a moment."   
She smiled. "James is still angry, isn't he?"   
At this, both Sirius and Remus' gaze dropped to their scuffed toes.   
Lily dropped to one knee to pick up her wand polish. "Well? He is, isn't he."   
She said this as more of a statement, and, none to her surprise, neither of the boys answered directly. Remus took her cauldron from her, while Sirius dumped the polish inside it.   
"Well, you see, the way it went is this. He told us that you two got into a fight and that he hadn't done anything, that it was all your fault, and that he kicked you out of the house."   
"Which he did," Lily intercepted.   
"I'm coming to that." Remus held up a quieting hand. "His mother started screaming at him when she found out—and she's _got _to have some banshee blood in her somewhere—but there's something that he didn't tell her, and he told her that he couldn't tell her that, so…well, it more or less went downhill from there."  
Lily bit her lip. "I see."   
Frowning, Sirius took her arm. "You all right?"  
"Sure. Why wouldn't I be?"   
"Oh—no reason. But he told us that he was absolutely through with your temper, so—so—well—" Remus stopped.   
"So what?" Lily prompted.   
Sirius sighed. "Come with us. You're not going to make a scene, though."   
Lily gave him a look.   
"Never mind."   
"I don't make scenes."   
"I know, I know. 'Many a red sun will set—"   
"Many a blue moon will shine before I do. Good. You know your musicals. If you want to tell me this, by all means, proceed."   
Remus smiled. "Good, then." He steered her towards the Leaky Cauldron's tables, where he bought her some lemonade and some sort of cream pie for all of them. They made for a table near the stairwell that led to the rooms, and Remus made her sit down before he let her continue. Frankly, Lily thought this was quite a waste of time, but she gave in, thinking that if he had such an active imagination, he'd better get his way, unless he were driven completely insane by the delusional complications.   
Sirius smiled at her, rolling his eyes at Remus, who was taking several deep breaths before pointing his thumb over his shoulder, gesturing for Lily to look that way.   
She saw a familiar black, tousled head two tables away, with his Hogwarts supplies in a cauldron next to him. Lily almost stared at Remus in disbelief, as if he was mad to think that she would throw a tantrum over James Potter sitting by himself at a table in a pub—but then she realized that he _wasn't _alone.  
A face she knew was sitting across from him, twirling a strand of hair around her finger. With a sympathizing look on her face, she was listening to something he was bitterly relating to her with his forehead in his palm; not even bothering to touch the drink he had ordered.   
Lily recognized the blue eyes and retroussee nose before she had thought she would. It rather unnerved her; she hadn't even given one thought to Serena for—months, it seemed. Yet there she was, listening intently to something James was telling her with the sincerest compassionate look she had ever seen her use.  
Something cold slashed across the red-head's chest, and involuntarily she flinched. Confusedly, she looked over at her companions, but they were watching her face for a reaction. Raising her eyebrow at them, as much as to say "Well?", she glanced back over at the couple, an analyzing glint in her eye.   
It confused her, bewildered and baffled her. There was something wrong; she couldn't pinpoint it, but it was there. For heaven's sake, only last night she had thought of how much pleasure it would give her to scratch his eyes out with her nails and watch the blood run down his face. And now, now--she was trying to convince herself that she hated him. Lily hated this. Hated and detested it more than anything she'd ever come in contact with—she had always despised idiots that made fools out of themselves over prats.   
And now she seemed close to joining their ranks.   
As soon as those thoughts had flashed across her mind, they vanished again, and she tossed her hair over one shoulder, pulling a strand out from her mouth.   
"What? You two are staring at me as if I just sprouted a fountain of dice from my head."   
Remus smiled. "So you're not angry?"   
"Angry? What for? I haven't been given a reason to."   
"That's true. But still."   
"But still what?"   
"Never mind."   
Both of them watched her leave the pub to the busy London street, and when they had gone, they stared at each other.   
"Well," Sirius commented, "that was lucky."   
"You're telling me!"   
"I believe so."   
"Sirius!"   
"Oh, all right, all right. You're right, we are lucky."   
"And don't you forget it," Remus admonished as he stood up and set off for his own supplies.  
The night before Lily left for Hogwarts, she couldn't sleep. For the first time in weeks, she found herself unable to sleep. Restless and uncomfortable, she swung herself out of bed and went over to her window, seating herself on the sill. Her eyes first took in the faint moonbeams, then, roving around her room, they caught sight of the painting James had given her. She caught her breath sharply.   
The brush that had outlined her face had given something more to it than she believed it really possessed—a kindly, beautiful, loving nature. She couldn't tell where the idea came from—unless he had seen something about her that she hadn't. And now, reflecting on what she had told him, the cold snake of despair constricted around her lungs and something else, making it hard to breathe. She dropped her head onto her arms, then, leaning her face against the glass, let a tear run down her cheek.

The next morning, any trace of anything out of the usual was gone—vanished, vamoose. Businesslike and brisk, the family set off for the station, cheerfully saying their goodbyes and letting crocodile tears run down their faces when they said their "I'll miss you!"s.   
Lily shook them off when she reached the barrier. Running through by herself, she stepped onto an almost empty platform; it was only ten o'clock; her father had taken her there an hour early so as not to be late for a meeting. The Hogwarts Express was just entering the station when she pushed her trolley and Alisande over to a bench and sat down, thinking about something.   
When most of the rest of the students came trickling in, she barely noticed them; so wrapped up in a trail of thoughts she'd been following that she never noticed anyone except when they stepped on her feet. Not until someone put his hand on her shoulder did she snap out of her trance.   
"Lily?"   
"Severus? Oh—you scared me. Hallo."   
"Hello. Have a good summer?"   
"Yes, I did, thanks."   
Something about her warned him not to ask her anything, so he simply smiled. "Good, then. If you want to come sit with us—the compartment at the end of the train's ours."   
Lily smiled absently. "Thanks. I might not, though."   
"Sure, that's okay. Just wanted you to know you've got an invitation."   
"Thank you."   
"Course." He walked to the smoke-spouting train, getting help from Lucius with the trunk he was carrying.   
Somewhat lethargically, and still deep in several odd thoughts, Lily stepped onto the train, too. She was pulling her trunk onto the train when a hand caught the other end and lifted it for her.   
"Need some help there?"   
"Sirius! Yes; thanks," she accepted. Between them, they managed to get it into an empty compartment without throwing Alisande's cage over. Lily, after calming her rather excited owl down, sank into a seat   
next to the window.  
Sirius hesitated at the door; then turned back, choosing the seat across from her.   
"Lily."   
"Yes?" Her gaze riveted his.   
He bent forward. "Are you all right? I mean, about what you saw yesterday."   
Lily felt the cold stab again, and, taking it for anger, almost glared at her friend.   
"Why wouldn't I be?"   
"Well—I thought you liked him—that you were friends."   
"True." She sighed. "We were."   
"Until you lost your temper, right?"   
"Right." She was too drained to dispute the fact. "Sirius, I do wish I hadn't done that."   
"Oh—Lily…" he let his voice trail off. Not knowing what else to do, he moved over to the seat next to her   
and awkwardly draped an arm over her shoulders.   
Frowning, he noted that she was tense; spanned and stiff, and not as weary as she sounded; as if she were trying to hold something in.   
"Lily."   
"What?"   
He looked at her, realizing that the clear glaze over the forest-green orbs were tears she was trying to hold in.   
"I'm here—if you want to cry."   
Lily stared up at him. For a minute she wanted to give in and unburden herself—but then her pride stopped her. She had an awful lot of pride, and at the moment it was forcing itself into her throat, pushing the lump of grief back down.   
"What makes you think I'd want to cry?"   
"Well—your eyes were wet."   
She laughed uncertainly. "Oh—that's nothing."   
He knew better, but he let it drop as he watched her knuckles whiten as she took hold of the handle on one end of her trunk.   
He left her compartment when the train started, though he was rather disappointed to note that she didn't even seem to realize that he had left. She only did break out of her mind when the train pulled into the Hogsmeade station and her gaze fell on the robes she hadn't changed into yet. Quickly pulling them on, she swiftly pinned the Hogwarts prefect badge on and pulled her hair out of her eyes, leaving the train as the last person.   
Lily smiled softly when she caught sight of the frightened, bug-like eyes of the first years, all of them apprehensive and nervous. How long ago it seemed since she was one of them—since she had been warned about something like fighting a troll for the Sorting. Through the trees, she could see the towers and spires of the castle that was her home—her real home, the only place that she could really feel at home anymore.   
The carriage ride was uneventful; the only thing that snatched her interest was a blond plait and a tousled raven-wing head boarding the carriage in front of the one she stepped into. She wrinkled her nose in curiosity, but then sat down, leaning her chin on her fist and looking out at the moonless sky.  
They were herded into the Great Hall like cattle, Lily thought; the only things missing were the branding irons. Rather mechanically she slid into her seat and watched the first years file in. A somewhat unfamiliar sight met her eyes—Serena, living up to her name—quiet and serene, sitting next to James at the table and listening to him mumble something. Lily frowned and averted her eyes just as the hat began to sing: 


	52. The Crucible

Good evening, fellow countrymen  
  
I see you're none too tired;  
  
So hearken with all your mind and ken  
  
Though this won't take a while.  
  
The founders of this great school are,  
  
Though they are dead and gone  
  
Embedded in our very minds  
  
Through your uprising dawn.  
  
The dawn of youngish heads afloat  
  
With tempests quite aswirl;  
  
With different kinds of knowledge that  
  
Is brought by boy and girl.  
  
To Ravenclaw the dawn had brought  
  
Intelligence in a lump;  
  
While Gryffindor, in masks of red  
  
Brought bravery and spunk.  
  
Hufflepuff, in golden yellow--  
  
For loyalty it fought;  
  
While Slytherin brought silver green  
  
And craftiness it sought.  
  
So put me on and let me choose  
  
Which house you shall adorn  
  
With your character and mind  
  
To your house you must be sworn.  
  
The Great Hall burst into applause when it had finished, and it only quieted when Professor McGonagall stepped to the front with a scroll of parchment.  
  
"Amson, Magda."  
  
A short, blonde girl with her hair in two plaits stepped up to the front of the Hall and slipped the hat onto her head. A few seconds later it called out over the mass of students:  
  
"HUFFLEPUFF!"  
  
The Hufflepuff table burst into applause as Magda Amson sat down at her seat while Professor McGonagall was already calling out another name.  
  
"Andrews, Frederick."  
  
"GRYFFINDOR!"  
  
Along with the rest of her table, Lily burst into wild applause as Frederick took his seat at the table.  
  
"Carson, Gladys."  
  
"RAVENCLAW!"  
  
The Sorting continued, and anxious first year after anxious first year took his or her place at their respective House tables.  
  
"Wagner, Gwendayln."  
  
"SLYTHERIN!"  
  
"Wooster, Gwladys."  
  
"HUFFLEPUFF!"  
  
Finally, "Xerxier, Bertram" was made a Slytherin, and Professor Dumbledore stood up as Professor Flitwick carried out the three-legged stool and the Sorting hat.  
  
"I would like to make a few announcements before we fill ourselves. First-the Dark Forest is strictly forbidden to all students, not only to first years." His eyes twinkled in the direction of Sirius and James. "The Whomping Willow is by no means to be toyed with; it is fully capable of causing serious injury to a student. Hogsmeade forms are to be handed in to Professor McGonagall before the first visit to the village. And, lastly- there is an international performing arts contest between students of magical schools. We do by all means encourage your participation in this.  
  
"That being said, let the feast begin!"  
  
The golden, twinkling plates were quickly filled with the wonderful feast; though Lily could only manage to eat a mouthful, it was a very good mouthful, and by the time they were walking noisily upstairs to their respective common rooms, everyone had loosened up and was talking animatedly.  
  
Lily was taking the first years to the Gryffindor common room; as soon as she reached the Fat Lady, she smiled in recognition.  
  
"The password is 'African constricter." She grinned encouragingly at the small students as she led them through the door and into the warm room with the crackling fire.  
  
The next morning, she awoke to the sun throwing rays of fire through the window. Blinking several times, she sat up in bed, gazing over the clouds.  
  
Shaking her head several times, Lily swung her feet out of bed and pulled a pair of robes out of her trunk. She changed quickly, and within minutes she was plaiting her hair, pinning her prefect badge to her robes, slinging her school bag over her shoulder, and swiftly leaving her dormitory, shutting the door softly behind her.  
  
It was seven thirty when she slid into her chair at breakfast and pulled out the new Transfiguration book and started poring over it, taking bites of a roll in between pages. She hardly noticed when Eva pulled out a chair next to her, smiling at the sunny blue sky and frowning at the schedules Professor McGonagall was handing out.  
  
"Someone's up early."  
  
Lily looked up. "Oh, hi, Eva."  
  
"You've been awfully quiet."  
  
"Oh-" Lily shrugged. "It's nothing. Where-" she looked around the Great Hall, which was slowly filling up-"where's Lora?"  
  
Eva frowned. "You didn't know that either? She got Sorted into Ravenclaw."  
  
"Oh." Lily's shoulders sagged. "I didn't know."  
  
"I can see that."  
  
"Oh, well. I guess we'll see each other in classes, won't we?"  
  
Her friend grinned. "Sure. Wouldn't expect anything else from you." Then she lost her smile. "Lily, you heard about James?"  
  
Almost unnoticeably, Lily stiffened. "What about him?"  
  
"About who he turned to after your fight."  
  
"Oh-that." Lily waved her hand. "Of course I heard. Couldn't help seeing it, could I? I'm sure they make a nice couple."  
  
Eva sat down next to Lily. "They're not a couple."  
  
Snapping her head up, Lily caught her friend's gaze. "They're not?"  
  
"Er-no-not yet." Eva tried to avoid the redhead's stare, without much success.  
  
"I see."  
  
"You're sure you're all right with that?"  
  
"Of course. He's entitled to have girlfriends. I've got nothing to do with him."  
  
Eva smiled. "Good, then. I was afraid you were moping or something."  
  
Moping? "Me? Eva? Who are you and what have you done to my friend?"  
  
Vanessa sat down next to Lily. "Hallo and good morning."  
  
"If you say so," Lily replied, slapping her book closed as a milk jug threatened to overturn itself.  
  
At eight, when Lily and her friends were standing up to leave the Great Hall, they almost ran over several people at the doorway that were trying to get in.  
  
Lily looked up. Right in front of her were James and Serena-neither of them were ridiculously hanging onto each other's arms as they had in third year; they were sensibly shouldering their books and talking-that is, until she bumped into them.  
  
Lily almost didn't dare to look up, and when she did, she met a sort of odd glare; angry, yes, but also a bit pleading and confused. On her part, she only saw the glare.  
  
Tossing her head, she gave him a proud and arrogant stare, and she smiled haughtily to see him drop his eyes.  
  
"You're blocking the doorway."  
  
He moved out of her way, handing her freely a stare of disgust, and when she turned towards her Charms classroom, she caught Eva's smirk.  
  
"You're not sulking. Good."  
  
"Why ever would I?"  
  
"I'm not starting this again."  
  
"Very good."  
  
Charms was rather confusing for Lily-it wasn't exactly easy to deal with someone who, besides being her assigned partner, would alternately glare at her and stop himself from giving a customary "Hello". She came through rather cold-heartedly, squaring her shoulders and making him livid by being the first one in the class to make her small stool start playing the drums on a desk with its own feet.  
  
One thing did catch her attention, however-a shiny silver badge on his robes.  
  
"You're a prefect?"  
  
He looked up. "Sure. You didn't know? Remus handed his in-said he couldn't keep it up. They gave it to me."  
  
Scornfully, Lily twisted a strand of hair around her finger. "And which brainwashing charm did you use for that?"  
  
James glared at her. "I earned that prefect badge, thanks very much!"  
  
"Pleasure."  
  
"If you're so high and mighty and smart and better than me, how many O.W.L.s did you get?"  
  
Lily rolled her eyes. He really shouldn't have brought up that subject.  
  
"Twenty-two."  
  
She would have relished the use of a camera at this moment. Never before had she known exactly what people meant when they used the expression 'looked like a sheep.' Now she knew. Only she doubted that sheep wore glasses.  
  
"Twenty-two Ordinary Wizarding Levels?"  
  
"No; twenty-two pairs of socks."  
  
"Last time someone got that many was twenty years or more ago! You sure it's twenty-two?"  
  
"Why would you care?"  
  
"I got fourteen, and that's higher than my parents, for Pete's sake. What are you, some sort of encyclopedia?"  
  
"Nope. I'm better than that."  
  
"Then what the bloody hell are you?"  
  
"Lily Evans."  
  
She didn't know how she retained her self-control at the sight of his face.  
  
That evening, she was talking to Eva and Amanda about the fight she and James had had, leaving every bit about the Alendoren Cove out; she had invented a rather picturesque story about his not wanting her to befriend a Slytherin. The girls ranked themselves on James' side, to Lily's amusement. She would have done that, too, if she hadn't been the one that was the opponent.  
  
For once, she was starting to hate their fights; hate and despise them beyond everything else she had ever detested. Hated not being able to speak to him normally; reviled against the glares they exchanged in class and in the corridors, and loathed his refusal to talk to her.  
  
It had seemed so long ago since she couldn't care less if the entire school refused to have anything to do with her; and now this seemed to matter more than anything. But at least she had the satisfaction of knowing that no one knew what she thought; she had overheard Remus urging James to say something in the way of apology, and James had retorted that someone who didn't care enough about his friendship to even act a tiny bit sad wasn't worth it.  
  
Her whole mood wasn't affecting her grades any, but the entire depression stage was starting to show itself in her eyes; if anyone besides her friends had bothered to notice her, they would have been seriously worried. It seemed that every moment she was repressing tears, and the unflowing salty liquid was seeping into her sarcastic temper, jibing at her with cruel retorts she would hate herself for seconds later.  
  
It was slowly eating away at her to see someone she completely clashed with hanging on his arm. Wait-not hanging; she was standing by him as a sort of emotional support; as someone he could and was counting on when he needed anyone to talk to. This seemed even worse than anything she could have imagined. If he had bothered with a flaky, superficial, small-minded imitation of a person, she could have spit scornfully in his face; but the fact that he was growing attached to someone that had grown dignified, stately, sweet-someone with a heart-was what was devouring her mind.  
  
Lily was taking refuge in her books. Only a month after she entered Hogwarts for her sixth year, she had become a successful recluse, and she had filled a small book with drawings of tears; of knights kneeling next to the tomb of their sweethearts or holding a dead lady in their arms; of servant girls in peasant gowns clasping lockets tightly with tears running down their cheeks, of eyes weeping silent despair. She never showed her work to anyone; she never let anyone hear what she thought.  
  
One night, Eva and Lora were becoming close to desperate. Of course, they had noticed her silent separation from the rest of the school, and so far, they had had no idea how to combat it. Before, they had known the reason for her despair-her mother-or it was simple loneliness, not the sadness they saw in her now. Hitting on the last, most desperate motion, they approached her one night, as she sat curled up in the darkest, coldest corner of the common room, drawing something, just as usual.  
  
Eva stepped forward. "Lily."  
  
Lily looked up. "Oh, hello." She snapped her sketchbook shut.  
  
Lora sat down next to her, a halfway planned speech forming in her mind. "Lily, I want to suggest something to you."  
  
The redhead smiled absently. "What?"  
  
"It's about the international talent show thing. Eva tells me your mother was an actress-and that you're not to be sniffed at either."  
  
A faraway look came into Lily's eyes for a second, but it flew away as soon as it came. "Yes?"  
  
"I want us to enter it."  
  
"I'll support you, of course."  
  
"No, you imbecile!" For a minute, Lora wanted to burst out with something; she controlled herself soon. "I-we, that is-we want you to act in it."  
  
Lily faintly smiled, with difficulty concealing a hopeful gleam. "I don't know."  
  
"Oh, Lily!" Eva sighed. "You'd be wonderful in this. You honestly would. Look-we want you to do this, for Pete's sake! At least listen to what we're going to have you do!"  
  
Lily swung herself around so that she was sitting cross-legged on the window seat. "Which play were you suggesting."  
  
Lora grinned almost evilly. "The Crucible."  
  
The Crucible! Lily caught her breath. She remembered. The whirlwind drama her mother had reenacted for her so many times when she was smaller- the tempest of hate, jealousy, and religion rolled into one.  
  
"Eva-you're sure?"  
  
Eva grinned. "Positive. We're going to ask my parents for a fund for costumes and sets-and we're going to be holding our own auditions. Nothing fancy, just us students, and-well, we think this'll work! It'll be wonderful-and the fee for entering the contest isn't so high. Lily, say yes! Say yes!"  
  
Lora chimed in. "Say yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes!"  
  
Lily couldn't help but laugh. "You really think that I'll do well in it?"  
  
Tossing her head, Eva spoke condescendingly. "My dear-when Miss Doylen says something-she does not think-she is sure!"  
  
"All right then!" Lily gave a half-genuine smile. "I'll do it!"  
  
They informed Professor McGonagall of their intentions, and two weeks later, they had acquired permission from their parents and several scripts. They were holding the auditions in the Great Hall; between lunch and dinner. Eva and Lora, who had no intention of participating-they either didn't think they would be good or they were too shy-had picked the judges; there were two from every House.  
  
Lucius and a girl that was on the Slytherin Quidditch team, Maria Slenkham, were from Slytherin; Lora and the Ravenclaw prefect made up their House; Hufflepuff had both of their prefects judging, and Gryffindor included Eva and Amanda. Only about thirty people showed up for the auditions, but Lily, who was seated out of sight near the teacher's table, felt her eyes widen as she saw James and Serena appear.  
  
Eva obviously hadn't expected this; she was a bit startled and flung a glance over at Lily, but the redhead had immediately immersed herself in her script.  
  
The story was set during the Salem witch trials; a girl, Abigail Williams, was madly in love with her former employer-she worked as a maid-, John Proctor. They had committed adultery, and upon finding that out, Proctor's wife, Elizabeth, turned Abigail back to the home of her uncle, Reverend Samuel Parris.  
  
Then, one night, the girls of the town of Salem attended a séance of sorts in the woods, with the slave of Parris, Tituba, as the conjuress. Abigail performed a charm to make Elizabeth Proctor die, and just at that moment, Parris, who had been awakened by the noise, walked in upon them and they scattered.  
  
The next day, two girls, one of them Parris' own daughter, Betty, were lying still in their beds and refused to move; they did not even blink. Witchcraft was fastened upon Tituba, who, in order to save her neck, pretended that she had conjured up the Devil. Abigail and Betty, quickly realizing that they would be released from all punishment if they did the same, started crying out the names of the Devil's servants; people of the town they pretended to have seen in his company.  
  
Abigail quickly realized that if she could accuse Elizabeth Proctor of witchcraft, she could marry John Proctor if his wife were hung. She stabbed herself with a needle, accusing Elizabeth's spirit, and straightway got Elizabeth arrested. Proctor, however, met her and told her to stop crying out against his wife, unless she wanted for the whole town to hear about her as an adulteress.  
  
Abigail didn't listen, so, the next day, Proctor's new maidservant, Mary Warren, one of the girls that had also cried out names, was brought to the court by Proctor, and she tried to tell the court that all the pretense of people's spirits harming them was pretense. When Proctor was pressed for a reason for Abigail's lies, he came forth with the secret of adultery he had hidden. Elizabeth was called in to confirm his tale, and, thinking only to save her husband's reputation, she denied any such thing.  
  
Then Abigail straightway started accusing Mary of witchcraft, so as to save her own skin, and, in order to avoid being hung, Mary 'confessed' to all of the doings that were attributed to her now, but she accused John Proctor of forcing her to join the Devil.  
  
Abigail tried to persuade Proctor to run away with her when she stole into the prison, but he refused. She left the town with Parris' savings, to board a ship in the Boston harbor, while she left the Salem confusion behind.  
  
Meanwhile, Elizabeth Proctor's execution date had been postponed; she had informed the court that she was expecting a baby, and they would not kill an unborn child. But Proctor, who had never 'confessed' to his dealings with the Devil, was to be hanged. The court sent Elizabeth to try to make him change his mind; he did so, signing a paper to that effect, but when he learned that it would be made public and that his sons would suffer the shame of their father being a liar, he tore his confession up and went to be hanged. The story ended on Elizabeth's line-"He hath his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him."  
  
They had been requested to read the roles of John Proctor and Abigail Williams; also the ones of Elizabeth, Samuel Parris, and Reverend Hale, a clergyman brought down from Boston to detect witchcraft in the town. Lily had been handed the role of Abigail Williams during the confrontation in the court, and she was letting the words soak into her skin as she whispered them to herself.  
  
Then, her name was called. Lora and Eva unashamedly waved at her, while Lucius simply grinned slightly. She found herself paired with Frank Longbottom as Danforth, a judge, three other Ravenclaw girls as the 'victims', a Hufflepuff fifth year as Mary Warren, a Slytherin seventh year as Elizabeth-and James as John Proctor.  
  
Lora leaned back in her chair. "Start from page one oh seven. I cannot tell you how."  
  
The Hufflepuff playing Mary Warren gulped several times, them plunged into her line.  
  
"I-I cannot tell how, but I did. I-I heard the other girls screaming-"  
  
Lucius interrupted. "Act agitated. You're testifying something that might get you killed. You're scared, woman, act scared!"  
  
She gulped, then resumed her line. "I-I heard the other girls screaming, and you, Your Honor, you seemed to believe them, and I-" She was shaking now, but whether it was from nerves or not, they couldn't tell. "It were only sport in the beginning, sir, but then the whole world cried spirits, spirits, and I-I promise you, Mr. Danforth, I only thought I saw them but I did not." Breathless, she stopped.  
  
Frank, with utmost seriousness engraven into his face, turned to Lily, who had meanwhile been transforming her character into Abigail's, and she was breathing rapidly, as if she were a cornered beast, at Mary's revelation.  
  
Frank interrogated Abigail as carefully as a primitive judge was capable of, asking if the spirits were a delusion. Lily straightened; squared her shoulders; almost glared.  
  
"Why, this-this is a base question, sir!"  
  
Frank attempted to pacify her. "Child, I would have you consider it-"  
  
Lily snapped. "I have been hurt, Mr. Danforth; I have seen my blood runnin' out! I have been near to murdered every day because I done my duty pointing out the Devil's people-and this is my reward? To be mistrusted, denied, questioned like a-"  
  
"Child, I do not mistrust you-"  
  
"Let you beware, Mr. Danforth!" Lily raised her chin up high and heaved her shoulders in false innocence and anger. "Think you be so mighty that the power of Hell may not turn your wits? Beware of it! There is-"  
  
She stopped, staring blankly about the Great Hall, apprehensive and frightened. Frank stepped forward, asking what was the matter, and suddenly, along with a pretended cold wind that swept through the imaginary court, hysteria broke loose. The girls, following Lily, started madly to accuse the Hufflepuff girl, Mary Warren's actress, of bewitching them with a chill wind, and during the wild confusion, Lily started to call out to Heaven, clasping her hands to her chest.  
  
"Oh, Heavenly Father, take away this shadow!"  
  
James, who had been standing somewhat dumbfounded near the sidelines, suddenly rushed for her, dragging her upwards by her hair, pulling her to her feet. She let out an ear-piercing scream-he had actually tugged her to a standing position, instead of acting it.  
  
Frank started for James. "What are you about? Take your hands off her!"  
  
James ignored him, screaming at Lily. "How do you call Heaven? Whore! Whore!"  
  
Frank wrestled James away, who was screaming out, "It is a whore!"  
  
Letting go of James, Frank did a rather good demonstration of baffled dumbfoundedness. "You-you charge-"  
  
Casting a frightened gaze around her, Lily cried out her next line. "Mr. Danforth, he is lying!  
  
"Mark her!" James shouted. "Now she'll suck a scream to stab me with, but-"  
  
"You will prove this!" Frank, the image of legal perfection, sat down on the end of one of the long hall tables. "This will not pass!"  
  
As suddenly as it came, James' vengeful mood vanished, and he stood there, trembling.  
  
"I have known her, Mr. Danforth, I have known her."  
  
"You-you are a lecher?" Mr. Danforth was thunderstruck.  
  
Lily listened to the accusation, limp, supporting herself from where she had fallen onto the floor when he let her go. Her cheeks burned red when he related her intentions-to "dance with me on my wife's grave!"  
  
Frank, doing the flabbergasted and horrified part extremely well, turned to Lily. "You deny every scrap and tittle of this?"  
  
She used her remaining strength to stand upon her feet unsupported, with her green eyes flashing dangerously. "If I must answer that, I will leave and I will not come back again!"  
  
They decided to call Elizabeth in-to see if she would corroborate James' statement. The plain Slytherin seventh year didn't do half as well as Frank or James had done, Lily thought-she almost reached up and massaged her scalp where James had pulled her hair-, but she was quite average.  
  
They stopped when Elizabeth was led out of the court after her statement, and they were told they could go. Quickly, Lily packed up her things and left the Great Hall; when she was rounding a corner, a hand on her sleeve stopped her.  
  
"Lily?"  
  
She whirled, but then discovered the owner of the tentative voice. "Oh, it's you. Thought you were somebody."  
  
James was undaunted. "I wanted to apologize."  
  
"For what?"  
  
"For what happened in there." He jerked his thumb back over his shoulder. "When I pulled you up by your hair."  
  
"You mean, by what's left of my hair." Instantly, she mentally slapped herself. He's trying to apologize, idiot!  
  
"I don't know why I did it-it's just that everything from that night we got into a fight flowed back-and you were doing your part so well I half felt as if I was Proctor-and-well, something snapped. I saw red for a moment-and, well-" He stopped lamely. "You see how it is?"  
  
"I see."  
  
He put a hand up to her head; didn't jerk back when she flinched. "You all right?"  
  
"Sure. Especially-" She caught her rude words on the tip of her tongue.  
  
"Especially what?"  
  
"Nothing."  
  
"Oh."  
  
Then, somehow, his wall of resentfulness and cruelty was pulled back up. "Well, then, I'd better go. Wouldn't want my friends to see me hanging around heartless, unthankful creatures, would I?"  
  
He didn't give her a chance to reply; he simply vanished down the hallway, leaving Lily stunned and hurt.  
  
She avoided her friends for the rest of the weekend; even Abigail; the rather fat girl that slept in her dormitory; she had finally let down her shield of coldheartedness and a freezing spear was jabbed instantly into her body.  
  
It was pointless; she felt-simply pointless. Each and every time that she trusted people, trusted them with herself, they always disappointed her. Now she knew why people would want to wipe out a whole race-destroy a tribe; a clan. At this moment, she wanted to murder every single wizard that ever set foot upon the earth; the next second, her mood was gone, leaving her shaking, pressed against the wall.  
  
Next week, Lily came close to breaking down every time she heard James say something lighthearted or laugh-he had no idea how much he had hurt her. And she never intended to let him know. He was the type of person who, once someone else's weakness was discovered, was fully capable of preying on them like a mantis. She refused to let that happen to her, and if she could help it, she would wipe him out of her paths forever.  
  
Only, seeing as that Monday they were informed by a bulletin near the Great Hall doors that they had received the roles of Abigail Williams and John Proctor for the play, that wasn't going to be so easy.  
  
Lily was sitting in her dormitory, back propped up against several pillows she had pinched from the common room downstairs and sketchbook laid against her knees, when the door banged and Eva, rather out of breath and quite excited, dashed into the room.  
  
"Lily! Lily! Lily, Lily, Lily!" she jumped onto Lily's bed and slammed her hands on the mattress for emphasis. "Guess what?"  
  
Lily looked up. "You just won the World Cup for loudest entry into a room. I don't know."  
  
"No!" Eva shook her head violently. "Results are in, and you made the play!"  
  
Her friend laughed. "That's wonderful! Seems like you're more excited than me, though."  
  
"Oh!" Eva frowned. "I told you you could do it!"  
  
"I know!" Unvoluntarily, Lily let her excitement and dreamy expectation show on her face. "Eva, think of it-I'll finally be able to be more like my mother."  
  
"Of course you will!" Eva grasped her friend's thin shoulders in a tight hug, then released her. "But there's something I've got to tell you."  
  
Lily was still smiling. "What?"  
  
"James got the part of John Proctor."  
  
It was rather amusing to watch the speed at which Lily's wistful gaze turned into an angry, outraged glare. "He did what?"  
  
Eva flinched. "I know, I know, after the other day, he's the rudest prat and pillock that ever walked the earth. But he's good. You've got to admit that."  
  
Lily sighed. "Yes, he's good. But I don't want to be his former mistress!"  
  
Slamming her head into the pillows, Eva was heard to mumble "Why me, why me, why me?"  
  
She sat up abruptly. "Lily, for Pete's sake, you're the best Abigail Williams we've got in this whole darned school. You back out, and-oh, help. Listen to me!"  
  
"I am!"  
  
"If you back out just because some prat-a very good prat, but still-some guy you don't like was cast in a role. Live with it! Please, for all our sakes!"  
  
Lily crossed her arms. "There is something you're not telling me."  
  
"True." Eva slumped. "The winning cast gets two thousand Galleons."  
  
"Ah-hah! So I'm an investment, is that it?"  
  
"Er-not really. Listen; this could make you a star! All those bigshot casting people would be begging for you to sign their contracts. Come on!"  
  
Lily sighed, though a smile twinkled at the corners of her mouth. "All right, fine."  
  
"YES!" Eva bounced back off the bed and headed for the common room. "She said she'll do it!"  
  
The redhead grinned as a cheering sound came to her ears.  
  
It proved to be a hard resolution to keep for her, but if she hadn't had a fixed madness about acting, she would have hauled off and slapped James Potter across his sneering face and gotten removed from the show for it. He seemed to never miss a chance to taunt her and pick out every flaw in her character; there hadn't been a time she remembered when he had actually been humanly kind to her. It was maddening, and what was even more infuriating was having to act as though she were intensely and madly in love with him.  
  
The first time they worked with blocking, they were doing the entrance of John Proctor into the room where Betty, Parris' niece, was lying inert on the bed after the midnight dancing. Lily moved against the wall as an awed Abigail, and James shot a whisper to her as he entered.  
  
"Ready to confess your undying love for my perfect, charming self?"  
  
Lily didn't have to clench her fists for that, but it was rather difficult, keeping up a straight, winning, dimpling countenance when mischief and mockery was on every scrap of skin he had on his body.  
  
Everyone else had just left the room, and she was alone with the stiff Betty and Proctor. Stepping lightly over to the bed that Proctor was bending over, she touched his shoulder.  
  
"Gah! I'd almost forgot how strong you are, John Proctor!"  
  
With a knowing smile on his face, James looked up. "What's this mischief here?"  
  
Lily, with the winning smile on her face, quickly related last night's events.  
  
"Ah, you're wicked yet, are you?" James laughed. "You'll be clapped in the stocks before you're twenty."  
  
He turned to go, but Lily took his hand and turned him around. "Give me a word, John. A soft word."  
  
James turned to Eva. "Is this fair, having to work with someone who's obsessed with my every motion?"  
  
Lily was slowly losing her patience, and Eva could see that. She hurriedly intervened.  
  
"James, honestly!"  
  
"Okay, okay." He turned back to Lily, frowning at her growled "Don't turn your back to the audience!"  
  
"No, no, Abby. That's done with." He pulled his hand away, but she took his other one.  
  
"You come five mile to see a silly girl fly? I know you better." Her jeering, taunting tone set him somewhat more at ease. He pushed her aside again.  
  
"I come to see what mischief you uncle's brewin' now. Put it out of mind, Abby."  
  
Lily laid a soft hand on his shoulder. "John-I am waiting' for you every night."  
  
"Abby, I never gave you hope to wait for me."  
  
Starting to anger, she pushed a stray strand of hair out of her face. "I have something better than hope, I think!"  
  
"Abby!" His harsh tone made her draw back. "You'll put it out of mind. I'll not be comin' for you more."  
  
She couldn't believe it. "You're surely sporting with me!"  
  
James clenched his teeth. "You know me better."  
  
Outraged, Lily took his collar in one hand, yanking him down to her level. The directors had told her that she wasn't to hurt him while doing that, but, almost completely absorbed in her character, she was quickly forgetting.  
  
"I know how you clutched my back behind your house and sweated like a stallion whenever I came near! Or did I dream that? It's she put me out, you cannot pretend it were you. I saw your face when she put me out, and you loved me then and you do now!"  
  
Lily let out an exclamation of frustration as James, Peter, and several of his friends that had come to watch started to snort with laughter. James was the worst of them all.  
  
"What did I tell you? What did I tell you! Oh, this is priceless. She actually looked as if she meant it. This is absolutely priceless!"  
  
Lily sank to her knees, muttering Eva's phrase of the fortnight before. "Why me, why me, why me?"  
  
She started to relish the idea of large amounts of homework; they would allow her to skip practices. There was no reason for her to go; she knew all her lines and blocking after three weeks of four hours' rehearsal after classes-the reason for the amount of practice was that the international event was taking place during the Christmas holidays, and by the time Ravenclaw murdered Hufflepuff in a Quidditch match, it was Halloween, and the Ravenclaw that had been cast as Elizabeth Proctor kept getting stage fright.  
  
People had been amazed when Lily showed up at the third rehearsal without her script. The truth was that she didn't need it. Somehow, she managed to place herself inside Abigail Williams so well that the responses she gave didn't seem like lines she had memorized; they came from somewhere inside her, and they were natural; the lines she spoke were ones that she would naturally have given no matter what her lines were. 


	53. Human beings are too cruel

::blushes in embarrassment::  Okay, so every imaginary reader is throwing chairs at me because I haven't updated in almost literally FOREVER, but that's about to change, with at least four chapters… 

She had overcome her frustration at James and his cronies for their outbursts, but she had to stop herself from hitting something several times, when she had managed to melt away the candle-lit, table-filled surroundings and replace them with the rough wood of a Puritan dwelling; or a clapboard meeting-house—and then the person she had cloaked in rough farmer's garments and a strong character made some crude twentieth-century remark that jerked her back to the present.   
Professor Cauldwell was working them harder than before; the class had officially classified Lily as a workaholic. She stayed in the Potions dungeon after hours, stirring up Madam Pomfrey's medicines and improving on others. The Skele-Gro that had formerly knocked a person out with the pain now simply seemed to stab them all over with red-hot needles where the bone was missing.   
Professor Dorvan, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, was lecturing intensively on vampires. She was inviting one of her acquaintances—a vampire, one that lived in the Forbidden Forest, to lecture the class and to do some practical training at midnight in the classroom sometime near Christmas vacation. He was going to be dosed with a potion to make him unharmful, but Professor Dumbledore insisted on two other teachers being in the room while the vampire was near the children.   
Professor Trelawney was driving Lily insane. True, Lily had more patience than some, but for a large, ogling bat with a nose like a hedgehog and seventy-five strings of beads around her neck (Lily had been bored one day) to swoop down on her every few seconds and tell her that she was in great danger of being eaten alive by a sock was worse than usual.   
Their costumes had been sent by both James' and Eva's parents; James was wearing a rather elegant rough navy cloak and the period tunic and breeches. He wasn't cutting his hair; they were intending to pull it back from his face. The Ravenclaw playing Elizabeth was dressed in a plain tan gown that felt like sackcloth underneath a mildly dirty apron and cap. Parris and the judges wore black and white clergy suits; the accused had costumes resembling Proctor's and Elizabeth's; but they weren't as elaborate. The accusing girls themselves had dark brown or deep red dresses with white aprons over them and the caps they all thought ridiculous on their heads. Lily wore a dress of the same style; but it was deep blue, and it trailed more than the gowns of the others. The neckline went down two inches; not more; the sleeves weren't as long on her dress. The details were small; but they gave her a 'fast' and 'loose' appearance.   
There was one rehearsal where Lily was promising to make Proctor a perfect wife when Elizabeth was dead, and she had to kiss his hand.   
"Oh, John, I will make you such a wife when the world is white again!" She knelt down and kissed his palm—and instantly, when she touched it with her lips and raised her head to say her next line, something seemed to constrict around her throat, and she toppled backwards, croaking something.   
When her voice returned a good two minutes later, the first thing she did was to push the cackling audience out of her mind and try to claw James' face apart; she didn't succeed. Lora had caught hold of her apron strings.   
"You—you little—you—you!—"   
"Me."   
"What was that for, you pillock?"   
People were still snickering madly, remembering the sight of her trying to say something and only croaking out frog-like sounds.   
"It was funny!"   
"That's it!" Lily stamped on the floor; almost shook the foundations. She raised her hand to slap him; the blood rushed to her face, and then, seeming to recover herself—she dropped her palm.   
"I suppose it was."   
He was, quite frankly, stunned. What he had been trying to do was to get her thrown out of the performance; hurt her as badly as she had hurt him—but she was harder to anger than anyone he had ever come across! She had about seventy-five people getting a kick out of her humiliation, and then, in a quiet, sedate voice, she agreed that his practical joke _was _amusing. James was honestly baffled.  
He didn't know how to respond.   
"Er—okay, then."   
Lily pivoted to face Eva. "Eva, I'd like to call it quits for today."   
Eva nodded. "Sure. That okay with everyone else?"   
Lora laughed. "It's better than her tearing his eyes out, which she would if she stayed here any longer! I'd help her, as a matter of fact."   
Taking off the white cap and apron, Lily threw them over to Lucius. "Here. Eva, you get the dress later on tonight." Without waiting for an answer, she swished out of the Great Hall, leaving silence behind her.   
Outside the Great Hall, when Lily was turning onto a staircase, she felt a hand on her arm. Swirling around, she found herself face to face with Severus.   
"I heard a sort of fight?"   
Lily laughed. "James was being himself. Nothing really important happened."   
"Good." He held out his arm, and she took it; they both started towards Gryffindor Tower.   
"So; how's life been treating you?"   
"If life is James Potter, then it's been using thumbscrews on me."   
He winced. "Ouch. I'm sorry."   
"Oh, don't bother. I'm all right. It's not as if—" she stopped—"as if I care enough about him for him to make me mad, is it?"   
He tried to look into her eyes, but she kept them fixedly as a portrait of a knight on a fat pony.   
"Lily?"   
"What?"   
"You _don't_, do you?"  
Lily stopped and faced him. "Severus Snape, I could swear on my wish of Professor Trelawney choking on a pellet of ferret food that you didn't just say that, and if you did, that you know better."   
He laughed. "I'm sorry. I guess I just thought—oh, I was being stupid. Never mind."   
His companion smiled triumphantly. "I wasn't."   
"Wasn't what?"   
"Minding."   
They had almost reached Gryffindor Tower by this time, and Lily stopped a corridor away from the portrait. She turned to Severus.   
"Thank you."   
"For what?"   
"Everything." She smiled brilliantly, leaned forward, and kissed him lightly on his cheek. Before he could jerk back into reality, she had vanished into the shadows.  
James stopped with the practical jokes after that; more or less. He still loved giving smart remarks under his breath and yanking her seat out from under her at dinner, but the novelty of it had worn off, and he settled with simply ignoring her. Without knowing it, he was doing several persons a favor with that. Lily was turning to Sirius and Severus, mostly to vent, but also for help in controlling herself, which was harder than it had ever been. Still, the last thing she wanted to do was succumb to James' taunting, so she couldn't give in.   
Meanwhile, Lily was doing better and better in her classes. Professor McGonagall had told her that she would take her on as an apprentice teacher after Hogwarts if she wanted to do so. Her grades were going steadily up, and the people in her classes found it normal to go to her with their questions instead of a teacher. Almost invariably, she was the one picked to demonstrate a rather dangerous spell, and she wouldn't have needed to study at all for the rest of her Hogwarts years and still be able to make over one hundred per cent. But, having the sort of obsession with her grades that she had, she threw herself into her books as if they were her liferaft in a storm.   
Halloween was approaching; in fact, it was the night before Halloween when Lily was informed of the date. She had been so occupied, what with her books and the play and the personal annoyances in the form of a former friend, that she didn't let any other knowledge seep through. So Lora's announcement, one night after a practice, came as a rather large surprise.   
"Lily, you know we're having that Hogsmeade visit tomorrow?"   
Lily looked up. "We are?"   
Lora sighed. "I take that as a no. We are."   
"I see. What about it."   
"Are you coming?"   
Eva caught up with them. "I heard the word 'Hogsmeade'!"   
Lora laughed. "I'm trying to see whether Lily feels like going or not. Lily, we're buying set materials there."   
Looking up, Lily let her eyes smile. "We are?"   
"Absolutely. We're also asking you, Snap-er, Severus, and James to do the sets."   
"Oh, no." Lily stood up. "Oh, _no._Absolutely _not._"  
Eva grunted in frustration, while Lora took the "no" as a "yes".   
"Wonderful. We'll meet you in front of the Three Broomsticks at one-thirty. Either bring the costume you've got or wear it. Preferably wear it. See you then!" She started for the Ravenclaw common room before Lily could say anything.   
The next morning, Lily lined up along with the rest of the cast for the horseless carriages that were taking them to Hogsmeade; they could easily be told apart by their long, Puritan dresses for the girls and the coarse farmer's outfits and black suits for the boys. All of them were wearing cloaks, though, so they weren't as noticeable, and when they reached the village, which was bursting with people wearing anything from Hogwarts uniforms to fishing nets, they stood out even less. Eva led them straight to the small pub, as the wind was blowing the pink out of their cheeks.   
James raised his hand. "Drinks on the set providers' son!"   
Everyone cheered; they pushed four tables together, and when James came back with the butterbeers, everyone was ready to discuss what they came for.   
Eva and Lora were the stage managers and directors; that is, they were good at bossing other people around, and what they thought needed to be done usually was correct. They had drawn sketches of the sets they thought would be acceptable, and everyone was poring over them.   
Lora pointed to one. "See, that's Parris' attic, where the first act takes place. The last thing we want is for this to be too overdone; that kind of takes the attention away from you guys." She nodded towards the directors. "So we thought we'd have rafters or something, and then just one bed-stage right. We need one window on stage left, but we don't need curtains. We're going to have the door permanently upstage right." She waited for them to nod in agreement, which they did.   
"I want to go out a bit more with Proctor's house. I want things like spice jars on shelves-just little things to make it look more like a home. We've got the table on stage left, and the fireplace upstage center. We need a small mantel, just like a plain piece of wood. It needs the pot for the rabbit stew, and then we can get a salt shaker from the kitchens; that's not so hard. Door; upstage right. As usual." She flipped the page.   
"I don't want the courtroom to be outdone. This is where we really need to focus on the actors-this one's the most dramatic scene. All I think we need is boards for a background, and then a long table for the judges. And a seat for the accusing little brats." She smirked at the three Hufflepuffs and the Ravenclaw and Slytherin, who were giving her friendly glares.   
"Act four. I want to do it in the courtroom. It's pointless to make another room. So. Any questions or input?"   
Everyone shook their heads. James took Serena's hand before answering. "I think you've got a pretty good set plan. What, say, do you think it'll cost?"   
Lora looked at Eva, who started thumbing through a notebook.   
"I think-if we manage this well and get as many things from our house as we can-one hundred twenty Galleons."   
One of the Hufflepuffs spit out a mouthful of butterbeer all over the table at that, earning a few squeals and disgusted noises; James calmed the group down quickly, though.   
"It's no big deal; you won't have to bother. My parents are paying for this. They don't care how high the cost is, they said, as long as it doesn't reach over one thousand five hundred."   
There was a rather relieved sigh; for James, Lucius, and Eva were the only honestly rich children in the group. Breaking the silence that had settled on them, Lora jumped up, almost knocking over Serena's bottle of butterbeer. Lily wasn't quite sure it wasn't an accident.   
"Let's go look at sets then, shall we?"   
Her excitement was infectious. They made their way to a tiny store, the _Theatre Accessories_, squeezed in between the post office and the Hogsmeade branch of the _Magical Menagerie._ It was brightly lit inside, and when the students stepped onto the creaking wood floor, a small witch scurried out from behind the back rooms.  
"Hello, dears! Anything you need?"   
Lora stepped to the front with the plans. "We've got a production we're producing," she said importantly, "and we'd like to look at the options you have for backgrounds."   
The wrinkly old lady peered over the papers, now with several butterbeer stains on them. She coughed.   
"What's the time period, dears?"   
Lora, still in a ridiculous pose she thought was grown-up and dignified, gave her answer. "_The Crucible_ It's the Puritan time period—actually, 1692 to 1693. We need sets for a clapboard meeting house, an attic of a home, and the downstairs of another home."  
The woman winked. "I think you'd better look around, dears. Straight through that door on the left, and then straight ahead."   
Lily was starting to twitch every time she said 'dears', but she followed the cast through the door. They emerged in a magically enlarged room bearing quite a resemblance to the storage room of a theater; everything was classified according to centuries. After wandering for a while, they finally got to _Saeculum 1700_, written in fancy, old-fashioned script on a piece of parchment tacked to a wooden beam.  
Eva moved forward. "Last thing we want is fancy. We'd better look for plain wood."   
The Ravenclaw playing Elizabeth Proctor, Flora Expavesco, nodded. "I think I see something like rafters over there—" she pointed to a corner—"over behind the noblesse rose trellis."   
They had found samples of the sets they wanted in little over an hour; they emerged with several samples of walls and ceilings, two kinds of windows, a miniature table and benches, a long, wooden table for the judges, two colors of wood for the door, and a bed. Lora was the one who stepped up to the counter and matched the samples they had unearthed to the different points in the plan; the rest of the cast sat on the floor, talking animatedly about the different, expensive sets they had seen.   
"And then there was something for the Revolutionary War—did you see that? I wonder what play that was for."   
"Did you see the golden cat? I bet that was for _Antony and Cleopatra_."  
"There was also an Italian villa. I don't want to know what that must have cost!"   
"I found several costumes in a different room from the Civil War era. _Those _were expensive."  
"Ooh, what colors?"   
"I saw an apple-green and a dark widow's dress—"   
Lora waved James to come over to the counter, and immediately they stopped talking. Still, they were relieved when James stepped back with the grin still on his face.   
Serena jumped up; she had come because she had insisted on being props manager.   
"What's the grand total?"   
"Hum? Oh, that. Nothing bad. Five hundred sixty Galleons, twenty Sickles."  
Lily was extremely glad he could be so flippant about the costs; she definitely wouldn't want to have to cover the costs. The two hundred pounds her father had given her at the beginning of her school years were going for her education; and there wasn't much of it left; just enough to keep her at Hogwarts till her seventh year. There was enough for the last set of books, but she couldn't afford to be extravagant at _all_.  
For a minute, she considered how nice it would be to be able to spend that much at one time, but then she wrinkled her nose at the prospect. She knew she would get bored eventually with the extravagant silks and satins surrounding her house, and with the expensive foods she would be able to buy. Actually, she was considering that she'd much rather have to work, rather than lie around all day.   
"I'm _never _getting married," she thought. "I couldn't stand having a pillock of a husband tying me down to earth all the time—and I don't think there's one person in this dimension that could understand me."  
One person came to mind, but then she brutally shoved the name out and padlocked the iron doors that kept him outside her conscious self.   
When they returned to Hogwarts, Lily dragged her feet upstairs, in the direction of her dormitory. The Halloween feast was in the evening, and she wanted to stay up late. The feast promised to be interesting, considering the time the Marauders spent in Zonko's, and Lily didn't plan on falling asleep before anything interesting happened. Besides, most likely they would attack her with whatever it was, seeing the bad terms they were on, and Lily had better be wide awake if she wanted to dodge whatever it was.   
What Lily considered 'resting' was sitting in the window seat with either a book or her drawing materials; this time, it was her book of pencilled portraits.   
She started off with a pair of twinkling eyes, set underneath smiling, dark eyebrows. The almost Grecian nose bridged just where the stubborn but sometimes compassionate jawline started to slope downwards. The mouth was a bit thin, but it was smiling, and the dark hair was wildy flopping everywhere.   
She stared down at the face for a few minutes, then, sharply drawing her breath in, she ripped it out of her book, crumpled it up, and threw it across the room, where it fell next to her bed, hidden by a fold of the curtains.   
Lily sat in the windowseat, straight-backed and tense, eyes almost wide with fright, breathing shortly and rapidly. She stayed there until it was time to go downstairs; when she did leave, it was with a machine-like swiftness.   
The feast was even better than usual; if that was at all possible. The bats that fluttered over the tables had lost their harsh squeaky sounds; they squawked more solemnly and softly, thereby sparing the students' eardrums. Professor Dumbledore had ordered butterbeer from the Three Broomsticks; the roast beef mounds set on the tables seven feet apart were decorated with orange and black tinted Hogwarts crests stuck into them with toothpicks and connected with draping, thin streamers. The orange and black icing that decorated the desserts was buttercream; a wonderful improvement over the usual powdered sugar icing.   
Lily enjoyed the feast; she drew out more than usual and started talking animatedly to everyone around her, not even noticing that one of those people was one she was currently supposed to be extremely angry at. When she left the Great Hall for the Gryffindor common room, she heard James whisper to Remus; "What's wrong with her; did someone spike the butterbeer?"   
"What, do you mind?"   
"No, 'course not! I mean-well, I don't want her talking to me, but-well, having to be mean doesn't leave you time for much else."   
"Well, then! Leave well enough alone, my friend."   
"All right," she heard James sigh before she was engulfed by the crowd.   
Everyone stayed up late that night; swapping old and new jokes and stories; whispering to each other about the new wizard down in Albania who was causing havoc among the Ministry and, in the case of the cast, rehearsing lines. It was around one when the common room was mostly emptied. The Marauders were still there, talking about something and eating Fudge Flies; Lily had retreated to her dormitory to retrieve _Das Kartengeheimnis_; she didn't trust herself with her pencils anymore.  
When she stepped off the marble staircase she had descended without a sound, her sharpened hearing unconsciously caught her name. Curious, though mindful of the anger of hurt she might feel by listening, she made her way behind the sofa they were sitting on.   
"I didn't think she'd be so outgoing. Almost like someone hexed her with a Cheering Charm or something."   
"You mean you're disappointed?"   
"Er-well-look here, Peter-"   
"What?"   
"She hurt me pretty badly, that night at our house. I hadn't done anything at all-I'd saved her from falling off of that owl window, for Pete's sake."   
"So?"   
"So the first thing she does is scream her head off at me!"   
"I don't know why that should hurt you."   
"Oh, I give up. I don't know why it did, but it did."   
"You care that much about her to care if she insulted you?"   
"Er-" James shrugged. "I suppose so, yes."   
Lily was trying to conceal the start she gave from herself. It wasn't working too well.   
"She matters that much to you?"   
"I guess. I don't know. I mean-she's a nice person and all, if you're not around her when she's got a weapon and/or is in a bad mood-"   
"But what?"   
"But she's too-too _out there_."  
"That made no sense whatsoever."   
James sighed. "She's so _flighty _and carefree-she runs into danger and _enjoys _it…" His voice trailed off.  
"Just like you, you mean."   
"No!" He was positive on this point. "We just break stupid school rules-she doesn't care if she breaks laws!"   
"_What?_" All four of his listeners were becoming intent on this; including Lily.  
Immediately James withdrew into a sort of shell. "Never mind. It's her secret; I can't tell you."   
Sirius sounded worried. "James, my friend, you're sick."   
"I'd like to remind you that you were the one that suggested we sneak into the girls' dormitory in second year."   
"Not that kind of sick. I meant-"   
"Lovesick," Remus added.   
James swung around at him and glared.   
"If you think that I have even the tiniest _hint _of feelings towards that ungrateful little brat, you'd better think again. You know perfectly well that Cissa and I are closer than I've ever been to _her. _Cissa's understanding, quiet, sweet, smart, sympathizing-everything that the Evans girl _isn't_. You know that!"  
Sirius nodded. "Good. Fine. Very good. I don't blame you one bit."   
James squinted at Sirius. "There's something you're not telling me."   
"Is there?"   
"No; I've got a pair of scissors stuck in my forehead. Tell me."   
Sirius raised his hands above his head. "The prisoner has confessed all. My secrets are your secrets."   
"Huh?"   
"I don't have any."   
"Liar."   
"Okay, so maybe I do," Sirius admitted. "But a person's allowed to have _some _privacy around here, isn't he?"  
"No," the other three chorused.   
Sirius closed his eyes. "I'm going to bed."   
Lily didn't forget about what he had said; but she sincerely hoped he didn't mean what she had thought he had meant. She couldn't deal with all this-she wanted to be as normal as she could get-befriend and help outlaws, wreak an extremely large amount of havoc throughout the world-she didn't have time for a stupid love life!  
However, she didn't have much time to reflect on her preferences of a perfect life; they were studying Bowtruckles in Defense Against the Dark Arts; a creature that Professor Dorvan had been extremely friendly with in the Forbidden Forest; they were tree-guardians, which normally leapt down upon woodcutters or tree-surgeons, gouging their eyes out with their long, sharp fingers.   
In the Forbidden Forest, however, they would leap on any unsuspecting creature within their grasp, no matter if it tried to harm the tree or not. Professor Dorvan had had a colony of the small Bowtruckles living in her tree; and she had asked them to come to Hogwarts for a demonstration. They would only be pacified for a few minutes if offered a certain object, and the students were ransacking the library for a book that might hold the answer; as they were supposed to confront their visitors upon their arrival   
The play was growing more demanding as Hufflepuff was slaughtered by Slytherin in the next Quidditch match and Christmas was moving steadily closer and closer. The tournament was on the twenty-first of December; it was taking place in northern Germany, and it wasn't helping that the workload was being piled upon them.   
The N.E.W.T.s were being taken by the sixth years at the end of the school year, but the teachers evidently felt that the fifth year's O.W.L. scores hadn't been high enough, so they were pushing for extremely high grades on the Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests.   
The homework was keeping the cast of _The Crucible_ up till midnight on days with less homework; Lily was the only one that could get to bed at any time and still wake up at six-thirty in the morning.   
It was starting to rain heavily, and James wasn't at play practice that much; he was at Quidditch training. Often, he would come in in the middle of one of his scenes, splattered with mud and exhausted. Quickly he'd have to remove the Quidditch robes and usually the drenched shirt for his costume; they were working on moving so that their costumes looked natural on them, which was the reason for them.

One evening, Lily had returned from the confrontation in court, and she was sitting at a table in the common room, working on an essay for Professor McGonagall: _What is the scientific basis of magic?_  
She was sitting in one of the armchairs, one foot tucked underneath her, bent over the roll of parchment.   
The only thing that could be heard was the scratching of her quill.  
She ignored the thumping footsteps coming down from the boys' dormitory, and only when James let himself down in an armchair with a loud wheeze and a "Bloody hell, I'm tired!" that she looked up.   
"Oh, it's you."   
He grinned. "None other."   
"Pity."   
"Isn't it, though?"   
She bent her head back over her essay; she was ten inches over the required length, but she was intending to make it another three feet long. Pulling several other books onto the parchment to prevent it from curling up at the ends, she flipped a page in another book she had bought for herself to read.   
James pulled his own Transfiguration book and supplies out; then leaned over to her essay. Lily let her free hand drop onto the table noisily, palm first, just missing his arm.   
"Hey, you've got no call to hit me!"   
"Are you trying to copy my essay?"   
James shrugged. "Not exactly."   
"Then stop pretending that you are."   
"Hey—you've got more than you need. Be sharing!"   
"I am not a sharing person."   
"I didn't notice."   
"That's pathetic."   
"Oh, shut up."   
"With pleasure." Her finger found the paragraph on the page she remembered seeing, and, looking up at the book every so often, she started rephrasing the statement.   
He opened his own book, then grunted in frustration. "Lily?"   
"Yes?"   
"Do me a favor, will you?"   
Lily looked up. "Am I obligated in any way to do you a favor?"   
"No," he admitted.   
"You've got your answer, then."   
"So you'll do it?" he grinned hopefully.   
Lily looked up into his face; which was a mistake. Half smiling and half frowning, she gave up, finishing her last word with a flourish and setting her quill aside.   
"What do you need help with?"   
"I don't have our essay topic."   
Lily let her head fall back onto the back of the armchair. "I would comment."   
"But what?"   
"But it's painfully obvious."   
He rolled his eyes and squinted over at her essay. By the time she had caught on, he was busily scribbling away on his own roll of parchment.   
Five minutes passed that way; Lily was curled up in the armchair, somewhere between dozing and sleeping, and James was trying to unconspicuously look at her essay. She knew what he was doing, and he knew she knew what he was doing, and she knew that he knew that she knew what he was doing. All in all, he wouldn't have been allowed to copy if she had been fully awake, and he knew it.   
Finally, he looked up. "Lily?"   
She shook her head, trying to clear the sleep away from her brain. "Yes?"   
"I'd like to talk to you."   
"Umph." She resettled herself in the armchair, with the characteristic foot tucked underneath her. "I thought this was coming. Proceed."   
He twisted his chair around to face her. "I want to talk about what happened at my house."   
"I thought as much."   
"I want you to tell me why you acted like that."   
"Get used to disappointments."   
"Lily."   
"Okay, okay." She unbent. "What? You want me to reveal to you the complete psychological meanings behind each and every one of the flutters of my eyelids?"   
"You could say that."   
"You're treading on Lightning Sand here."   
"Sorry."   
"I guess I can live with that. But honestly, if someone who is admitted to be extremely dangerous by the Ministry of Magic announced to you his intention of murdering as many Muggles as he could come across, and your entire family is made up of Muggles, you should have known enough not to get in the way."   
"Hey! I very probably saved your neck that time!"   
"Excuse me?"   
"I probably saved your neck."   
"How would that be?"  
He raised his eyebrows. "You honestly mean you don't know?"   
"Know what?"   
"Or else you don't realize."   
"That is an insult." Lily pursed her lips, waiting for an explanation.   
"How so?"   
"For me not to realize what you have seen would make me out to be a complete imbecile. What were you going to say?"   
He scowled at her. "I am _not _an idiot. I've got the second-highest grades in this school!"  
"And mine are better than yours. That is beside the point—high marks are surpassingly easy to achieve. What really tests one's intelligence is reality. But proceed."   
"Well, then." He rearranged himself in his armchair. "What would have happened is precisely this—that is, if I'd let you stay in Albania any longer. You, having the uncontrollable temper that happened to burst out at that time, would have very likely launched your fury at Vol—at Riddle, and he, in his turn, would have retaliated, in what manner I know not, but it would not have been pleasant." In quaint Sherlock Holmes style, he leaned back and pressed the tips of his fingers together, looking at her and waiting for her to confirm it.   
To his surprise, she did no such thing.   
"Never become a psychologist or a detective, James. Either you'll be prosecuted because you're hopelessly incompetent, or you'll lose your business because you're hopeless. Take your pick."   
James sat up. "Excuse me?!"   
Lily gave a short laugh. "My friend—you forget that I saved his fiancée. He is completely in my debt."   
"But he's got a temper about as bad as yours—you can't deny that he's incapable of seeing red if someone defies him!"   
The unconsciously superior look on Lily's face was maddening as she gave her answer.   
"James, I have lost my temper against him before. Do I look like a walking corpse?"   
"I suppose it would be rude to state the obvious, wouldn't it?"   
She laughed. "I welcome rudeness. I only feel comfortable around people who aren't depressingly formal."   
He smiled broadly. "You're not at all like anyone else I've met, are you?"   
"You'd be the best judge of that."   
"I know, I know." He sighed, relapsed into silence for a few minutes, and then looked straight at her face.   
"Lily?"   
She had been busy with the index of her Transfiguration book, but at his address she looked up. "Yes?"   
"I don't know how you'll take this."   
"I don't, either, considering I don't know what it is."   
"You've got the gift of making me feel like an unquenchable idiot."   
"Oh." She waved her hand deprecatingly. "That's not hard. And try dumping water on yourself."  
"Huh?"   
"_Quench._ To extinguish by means of water."  
A sharp reply was on the tip of his tongue, but he quelled it, forcing it down into his throat. "As I was trying to say, I'd like to start over—a fresh leaf—I'd like for us to be friends as we were again." Almost pleadingly, he caught her gaze. "I hate fighting with you."   
Lily smiled. "I think it would be better if we hated each other—especially now."   
James frowned. "I don't understand."   
Her pleasant smile widened. "It's just this. I don't know exactly how good you are at acting. If you're not all that good and you're only hating me onstage because you really did--well, it would be a pity to stop hating me before the tournament, wouldn't it?"   
He sighed and fell back—he was having trouble concealing the hurt he felt at the rebuff of an honest attempt at reconciliation. "Your arguments simply make too much sense—I'm starting to detest them."   
Her eyes were turning a hard, ice-green color as memories of her third year—of the last few weeks—of the cruelty he was capable of—and then of Eva whispering words clearly in her ear—the words that warned her not to be too friendly to him. The tears that had flowed during her third year and wouldn't leave her alone during her fourth; the memory of her mother's funeral invariably crept to mind—and the malice he had enjoyed exercising at the auditions; the spite and brutality that garlanded his face whenever he'd looked at her since sixth year began. When she raised her eyes, she knew instantly what her path led her to—the one that would harm her the least.  
"James, you're not the kind of friend I'd ever choose. I don't know how many times we've fought and you've been unutterably cruel to me, and I'd prefer not to know. I've tried over and over—it never works out the way it does in fairy tales, with the enemies becoming the best of friends."   
He shrugged. "They usually fall in love."   
Sharply, her head flew up, searching for a meaning behind the words in his eyes; they were as impassive as a metal wall, and she found nothing.   
"I don't care what the fairy tales say. What I _do _care about is me. I'm a hard-hearted, mercenary beast; I'd prefer if we weren't friends."  
The word "Why?" fell from his lips; it seemed as if he didn't even care if she lived or died.   
She tossed her head, giving out the first words that came to her lips. "Because you're too much of a mercenary thug, that's why."   
He hadn't expected that; it was obvious. "Huh? _I'm_ mercenary? Look at yourself!"  
Lily looked down. "I'm wearing Hogwarts robes and a prefect badge. What about them?"   
"Argh!" He pulled at his hair. "What do you mean by mercenary?"   
"I mean," she explained coolly, "that you seem to choose only those for your permanent friends as have enough money to please you."   
"_What?_"  
Sighing, Lily started ticking off names on his fingers. "Serena—her father's the Minister of Magic. They're in control of a fortune large enough to buy all England. Eva and Vanessa—enough said. Sirius isn't the most wealthy of people, but his bank account would allow him to live on his own, comfortably, for about forty years. The same goes for Remus. And—"   
"STOP!"   
Lily raised an eyebrow. "Has Mr. Potter had enough?"   
"It's a coincidence, all right! I don't choose my friends for their money!" With that, he stood up and stormed out of the common room, leaving Lily with an unusually pointed jaw; she had been trying to keep tears back.   
"You know, you're right. I wonder you didn't realize that I know that."   
She fell back, letting her eyes close. She was exhausted from the strain of being indescribably malicious and brutal towards someone she would give almost anything to have as a friend; her eyes had been clawing at her to tear for the past few minutes.  
  
The next morning, Lora could tell something was wrong as Lily walked into breakfast; she didn't usually have such a determined and inward look to her face. It was almost as if she were a queen that had found out she had to be sacrificed in order for her country to continue existing; and she was facing what she had to confront with the fortitude of seven rulers. Lora wondered, of course, but she could tell Lily wasn't in the mood to talk.   
She didn't speak to anyone, really, all day. Sirius tried to talk to her; to ask her what went on in the common room last night; for James was being close as an oyster. She didn't bother to respond; simply shook off his arm and vanished into the crowds that were swarming the corridors between classes.   
Severus tried, too. He'd known her longer than Lora had; she was closer to him than to Sirius or James, so he made up his mind to try. In all honesty, she didn't mean to rebuff him so cruelly, but she was almost incapable of realizing how much she could hurt people with a ruthless "I don't want to speak to you."   
She didn't come to the next Quidditch match; Gryffindor against Hufflepuff, but she was under the impression, from the extremely large party Sirius, Remus, and Peter were preparing in the common room beforehand, that they were quite sure of winning. Rather tired and strained from something she couldn't pin down, Lily remained in her dormitory with _The Princess Bride_ (again), an open window with sunlight streaming in and a cold breeze flowing around the room, and a brain longing to be wiped clean of everything that was running across it. She had been reading about Pensieves in Defense Against the Dark Arts, and she was wishing for one quite badly.   
_  
Chapter One. The Bride.   
The day Buttercup was born, the most beautiful woman in the world was a French scullery maid named Annette. Annette worked in Paris for the Duke and Duchess de Guiche, and it did not escape the Duke's notice that someone extraordinary was polishing the silver….   
"I must be overtired," Buttercup managed. "The excitement and all."   
"Rest, then," her mother cautioned. "Terrible things can happen when you're overtired. I was overtired the night your father proposed"…   
"Your father has had his annual physical," the Count said. "I have the report."   
"And?"   
"Your father is dying."   
"Drat!" said the Prince. "That means I shall have to get married!"…   
"I am your Prince and you will marry me," Humperdinck said."   
Buttercup whispered, "I am your loyal servant and I refuse."   
"I am your Prince and you cannot refuse."   
"I am your loyal servant and I just did."   
"Refusal means death."   
"Kill me then."   
"I'm your Prince and I'm not so bad—how could you rather be dead and married to me? You can either marry me and be the richest woman in a thousand miles and give away turkeys at Christmas and provide me a son, or you can die in terrible pain in the very near future. Make up your mind."…   
  
_ Lily was tempted to smile. Buttercup was one of the most annoying little gold-diggers she'd ever met…but then again, she was wiser and sadder than anyone she knew—her fiancé had died at sea—was murdered…  
Suddenly, aided by the loud cheers floating to her ears from the open window and the Quidditch field, she shook herself free of the spell of the story and let her eyes rove around her room. They came to rest on a spark of deep blue light hitting the wall.   
Following its source, she came to rest on the necklace she wore around her neck. The sunlight had been streaming through it to the wall…She put up a hand and touched it, running slim fingers over the cool surface and the golden talons holding it in place, shivering with a cold wind that was sweeping through the dormitory...   
The next moment, she was kneeling beside her trunk, pulling out something she hadn't used since—since—she couldn't remember the last time she _had _used it; probably back in fifth year. Lily drew out the black velvet cloak, threw it around her shoulders, and took the necklace in her hand. She knocked it against a hematite ring she was wearing, and, taking a deep breath, stared into the deep, dark, midnight-blackness surrounding her with its swirling claws.  
The landing was comparatively light; she fell onto one knee and picked herself up quickly. Lily cast a glance around her; no one was in sight; and what was more important—no battle was raging. A sigh of relief escaped her as she shook the glistening sands off of her cloak and made her way to the cave Tom was using for a dwelling.   
She entered, knocking before she lifted up the rug hanging over the door. Peering inside, she found Tom in deep converse with Litharelen; though he looked up quickly at the sight of her.   
"Lily!" Tom left his seat. "Did you—did you—" He raked the doorway in search of someone else. "Did you bring anyone?"   
"No; I came alone." Lily let herself sink onto a chair. "Is something wrong?"   
Tom nodded. "We—we want to move on to England—the Death Eaters and I, that is. We're in more danger here, and this is farther away from their homes. Not that I care much about them—but I _would _have to provide a decent alibi for them every time they left the continent. I'm ready to move on to England, our plans are set, we've got contacts inside the inner circle of the Ministry of Magic—the only thing that's wrong is that Lith won't let me go."  
Litharelen, though her pearly silver complexion held no trace of redness, was obviously steaming.  
"Of course I won't let him go! He's going to England to conquer innocents—to kill people that aren't like him or that don't like him. He's planning to establish a reign of terror—can you blame me if I don't want him to do that? Tom, sooner or later the Ministry'll get you—I _know _they will. There's no use telling yourself they won't. I don't want you doing this; can't you understand?"   
Tom sighed loudly. "I am _not _planning to establish a reign of terror! You've got an overly imaginative mind, Lith—all we're trying to do is—is—" He stopped lamely, but Litharelen finished his sentence for him.   
"Is establish yourself as the High Supreme Scowling Lord Wizard With Red Eyes. I know, I know. _But tell me, just tell me, what's the attraction in that?_"  
Lily raised her eyebrows. She had a point. A very good point.   
"Tom, why now, all of a sudden?"   
Tom sighed. "Someone ratted us out to the Ministry—where we hold our meetings and where I live. I know you wouldn't—but I'm not so sure about your friend."   
Lily tossed her head. "I'm not so sure he wouldn't do that, either. I won't bring him here anymore—fair deal?"   
The faintest ghost of a smile crept across Tom's face. "Fair deal."   
Smiling back at him, Lily looked around the cave. It had changed mightily in appearance since the first time she had seen it. Then, it was almost bare, with a cauldron hanging in the fireplace and several books and bottles on a lone shelf-a lamp, she remembered, was hanging from the ceiling. Now there were two chairs; plain, in the center of the cave; the cauldron was new and larger than the old one had been, and there was continually something bubbling in it.   
The solitary shelf had become many; they were lining the ceiling, and the number of bottles and books had definitely increased. The bottles were mostly crystal or of the same type as Lily's own-the one he had given her last year. Each was filled with some sort of liquid.   
Some were glutinous and thick; others were pale and pearly. Most of them, however, had a green tint or were a dark purple or red. There were some dotted here and there that were a golden color, or a light blue, but those were few and far between.   
Lily caught Tom looking at her, and she glanced up at him.   
"What's that?" She gestured to the liquid bubbling in the cauldron on the fire.   
Tom grinned and was about to answer, but Litharelen came in first. "It's his immortality potion. _One _of them."  
Lily was admiring the way Litharelen was hissing out the word 'one', but then she stopped at the sound of Tom's lighthearted, cold, high laugh.   
"Lith, you take this too seriously. What's wrong with living forever?"   
Litharelen was about to launch into a heated debate, but changed her mind quickly, pulling Lily out of the cave and into the bitingly cold wind. They walked over to the rocks by the shore, dived in, and treaded water for a while, until Litharelen cooled off. She had changed to the long, mermaid-like tail, and she was wearing a silver tunic blending beautifully with her hair.   
"Lily, I don't know what's wrong with him. He has a sort of obsession with power, and nothing I do can turn him from it. I've tried all I know. I've done everything in my power besides burying him alive-but that wouldn't help at all. For all I know, he's immortal already."   
Lily frowned. "Lith, he's too stubborn to be persuaded."   
"I know, I know." The pale, almost frantic girl wiped the silver strands of hair out of her eyes. "I just don't know what to do, and--" She flung her eyes open, the dark, deep green eyes that held so much power. "I love him."   
Lily knew there was more to that statement than simply the words Litharelen spoke. There was a ripple of something urgently sincere in her voice; something fervent, and something desperate.   
"I know."   
Both of them didn't speak for some time, and then Litharelen nodded towards the shore. "Care to return?"   
Lily smiled. "I'll come."   
Both of them set off for the coast, and while Lily was underwater, she could hear the faint sounds of a sea ballad; soft and streaming, yet light and forceful; churning in her ears.   
When they climbed out of the water, Litharelen turned to Lily. "Thank you." She wrung the dewy water out of her hair. "I don't know what I'd have done if you hadn't been there."   
"I didn't do anything."   
Litharelen smiled the ghostly glimmer that was her characteristic. "You were there."   
When Lily returned to the common room, she was glad she hadn't stayed longer. She could hear the rush of feet outside the portrait hole, and she didn't waste an instant of time before quickly flinging the curtains around her bed shut. Only then, sitting cross-legged on the mattress, did she examine her hair.   
It was as she had expected; it was streaked with more silver than usual, and most probably would stay in her hair for several hours. Resigned and exhausted, Lily fell back onto her bed. It only took a moment before her eyes closed in slumber.   
Abigail, her present half-friend in their dormitory, had noticed Lily's absence at the Quidditch match, and she had clambered the stairs in search of her friend. When she entered the dormitory, she instantly noticed the drawn curtains. Curiously, she moved forward.   
It only took the work of a second to draw the curtains away from the bed. Abigail peeked inside, thinking Lily might be reading or asleep-then she drew back, stunned and shocked at the sight she had seen.   
The almost auburn hair of the friend she knew so well was light-it was almost silver. Her naturally pale, partly pink complexion was a moonlit silver, and her lips were a silvery green. Her ears were pointed, and the necklace Abigail had only seen once or twice before was glowing with a spinning silver mist inside the midnight-blue stone. The dark, red eyelashes were blacker than ink, tinted with silver at the ends, where they tilted up.   
Breathing unnaturally fast, Abigail left the room. Just outside, she tripped over her feet, but regained them more quickly than she ever had done before. Gasping, she sped into the common room, intending to blurt out everything she had seen.   
She was halted in her intentions by Peter. More accurately, she ran into him, knocking them both to the ground. When Sirius and Remus helped both of them up, they noticed something strange.   
"Abigail?"   
Abigail stared up at Sirius. "It's Lily! She's some sort of creature-some monster! I saw-I saw-"   
"Whoa!" Sirius held up a hand. "_What_ about Lily?"   
"_She's-a-monster!_"  
James had meanwhile noticed the commotion. "What about Lily?"   
Puffing and wheezing, Abigail related what she'd seen, but she didn't notice James slowly becoming pale.   
It was only with quite a bit of effort that the Marauders prevented the whole common room from hearing her; as it was, only several people caught the words 'silver', 'pointy ears', and 'sick!'   
Remus was gaping as Abigail finished; as were Peter and Sirius. James was thinking furiously.   
"We need to go up there and see what's wrong."   
"Peter, you nut, if she's some sort of elf or veela thing, she won't want us interfering."   
"But she might _attack _us!"   
"You prat. What makes you think she would?"   
"Well-she's not _human_!"  
"Neither am I," Remus stated matter-of-factly. "We'd best leave her to herself…" His voice trailed off.   
James jumped in. He was still feeling more than a bit bitter towards Lily, and he saw this as his chance.   
"Why-it can't hurt us to look at her, can it?"   
Sirius turned to him. "Why do you say that?"   
"Well, it can't."   
Peter agreed hurriedly. "I think so, too."   
Remus frowned. "I don't think-"   
"Well, at least let the Gryffindors know. Then she won't have a reason to act so stupidly superior to us."   
Abigail opened her eyes wide. "You mean that that was why she stopped talking to me so much?"  
James nodded sagely. "I'll bet that's why!"   
Lily was shaking sleep out of her eyes when she heard footsteps almost outside the door. Sitting up straight, she pulled several strands of hair in front of her eyes. They were still the same as they had been before she fell asleep-the same silver and auburn interwoven.   
The voices and thumps outside were close enough for her to recognize the voices. James' was one of them. She drew a breath so sharply it almost made her dizzy-he _wouldn't_, would he?  
Deciding not to leave it at chance, she almost leaped out of bed. There was nowhere to hide in the dormitory they wouldn't think of searching-and they were already on the corridor-they'd see her if she left the room. Desperately, knowing she'd be accused of helping the outlaw if everything came out, she dashed for the window of the dormitory, clinging to the stone walls above the opened stained glass.   
As soon as the tip of her cloak vanished, the door burst open, and the five students piled into the room. Abigail made straight for the four-poster, then, as she opened it, drew back in horror.   
"She's _Disapparated_!"   
James snorted. "You _can't_ Apparate or Disapparate inside Hogwarts. Most likely she hid somewhere."  
Lily blessed her stars for the foresight she had had in leaving the dormitory; though at this moment, she was no better off than the man in black in _The Princess Bride_, when he had been hanging seven hundred feet above the ocean, grabbing hold of the sheer rock face of the Cliffs of Insanity.  
Still, she was hardly three feet away from the top of the tower; and there was a small circlet underneath the cone-shaped roof. Quickly, kicking off hard from the stone wall, she twisted herself up in the fashion of a hedgehog, landing breathless with her upper body on the safer side of the stone banister.   
She remained there for several minutes, blessing her luck and the funny gymnastic trick she had seen a gymnast do once at a competition; she had then decided to learn how to do it.   
Once, Abigail looked out of the window, but downwards, so that she missed Lily entirely. When the puzzled voices inside the room faded into the bustle of the common room, she opened the trapdoor that led to the corridor for the girls' dormitory.   
She pulled the hood of her cloak over her glistening hair, and quickly, she made her way to the house-elves' corridor, opening and shutting the door; flitting through like a shadow.   
The place Lily was making for was the prefect's bathroom-she stopped in front of the statue of Boris the Bewildered, and whispered "Lemon scent" so softly that she doubted the people in the pictures had heard her. The door opened quickly, and as soon as she slipped inside, she locked the door; then leaned against it, breathing hard.   
Lily would never have guessed that James' bête-noire for her had gone this far-she had never dreamed that he would have tried to reveal her secret, the secret he had sworn to keep. He was in it too-at least, she had thought so, but after this evening, for all she knew, he could very well be the one turning Tom in to the Ministry of Magic. It was mind-boggling, the petty things people could do if they had suffered a grievance…   
Human nature was cruel.   
  



	54. Because he's James Potter

Sighing, Lily slipped off her wet and sweaty robes and cloak, filled the large swimming-pool-like bathtub to the brim, and dived in. The hot water woke her up agreeably, and she spent quite some time with her arms propped up on the side of the basin, crossed, and her head lying on them.   
He _wouldn't_. He simply couldn't! She knew him too well. He couldn't possibly do something like-like _that. _From what she knew of him, he-yes, he could. He was entirely capable of being a malicious, cold-hearted brute, and he knew it, and he exercised that capability all too frequently. But-but-she _knew _him better than that! He couldn't simply turn someone over to the law like that-it wasn't in his character! Yes, it was. He would. But-but-no! He-  
Lily spent two hours with her head propped on her arms and her eyes half-closed, meditating on that. Her thoughts kept conflicting and sparring with each other, and she kept telling herself that he was completely adept at being untrue and spiteful and cruel to his friends-but then an undercurrent of something else kept jabbing at her, telling her that she knew she was wrong. If she only looked at the past and at the facts, she would never have doubted that he was returning to the Ministry of Magic this very evening to tell them all he knew about the encounter with Abigail-although she instinctively couldn't paste the character of that James Potter onto the one she knew-the one she had encountered sometimes, when they were alone.   
Lily didn't sleep at all that night. Worrying and doubting and chiding herself, she tossed and turned underneath the covers until early in the morning-she had returned to her dormitory when the spell-like effects had worn off. Finally, she sat straight up in bed.   
"I can't sleep. This is stupid. I can't go on like this; I'll drive myself insane." Throwing her feet out of bed, she picked up a bathrobe and flung it around her shoulders; slipping out of the dormitory, she left it for the common room.   
Once down there, she met someone she hadn't expected to meet. Of course it was possible-she was a Gryffindor, after all-but Serena Narcissa Sikora didn't usually get out of bed at four in the morning.   
She was sitting in front of the fire, huddled up, with her arms wrapped around her knees and her white-blond hair spread over her shoulders. Serena was staring into the dying flames, thinking about something-thinking hard.   
Lily harrumphed loudly, making Serena jump. The girl whirled around, but when she saw who it was, she turned back to the fire.   
"Oh, it's you."   
"Expecting the Lord of the Universe, were you?"   
"No."   
"Expecting James Potter, were you?"   
Serena turned her head towards Lily. "Yes, as a matter of fact. How did you know? You've been spying on us, haven't you?"   
Lily scoffed. "As a matter of fiction, you two have been completely stand-offish toward each other, so you're naturally waiting for him."   
"Wait." Serena put a hand up to her forehead. "What?"   
The redhead sighed. "Never mind."   
"Oh."   
"Sure."   
Out of nowhere, Serena ventured a question. "Why are you being so mean to James?"   
Lily was rather taken aback. "Because it's in my hard, cruel, vicious, spiteful nature."   
"He said as much."   
"To his divine comforter, is that it?"   
"Yes, as a matter of fact, that's so!" Serena was starting to boil. "You're simply jealous of both of us. You're not capable of anything that has anything to do with anything pure and good, anything nice and sweet. We're closer than you'll ever be to anyone, and we've got you to thank for it."   
Lily shrugged. "Don't invite me to the wedding. I'll be busy."   
"What? What wedding?"   
"Well, you're practically engaged as is. Do stop acting like the inanely self-absorbed fool you are; it's making me want to regurgitate the dinner I didn't eat."  
"I am _not _a fool! You're the one that's being the worst jealous idiot I've ever encountered!"   
Lily turned her eyes towards the ceiling. "Send the Oscar to my parents' address, will you?"   
Serena was finding it rather hard to come back with anything half as sarcastic as Lily, but she was trying.   
"You're simply jealous."   
"I think you've said that twice already."   
"Argh!" Serena stood up and walked over to Lily, towering over the amused girl by a good three feet.   
"I don't care what you say. _Nothing _you ever do or say will come between us, and if you try to break us up, you'll fail miserably."  
"You're assuming that I _want _to break you two apart."   
"Listen, you little fifteen-year-old. _I love him. I love him, and he loves me_. No matter how hard you try, you weaseling brat, you'll never break that bond."  
"'Westley and I are bound by the bond of love, and you cannot track that, not with a thousand bloodhounds, and you will never break it, not with a thousand swords.' Go on."   
"I have nothing more to say to you."   
"Good. My ears were starting to hurt."   
Instead of degrading herself further by giving her an answer, Serena whirled around and swept off towards her dormitory with the air of a regal queen that had just tripped on her way to receive the crown at her coronation.

The next night, Lily stepped into the Great Hall for the rehearsal, late and dripping wet. The only explanation she gave when the cast gave her a more-than-amused look was "Peeves." He had started throwing water balloons at her when she was leaving the Gryffindor common room. He wasn't in such a good mood ever since he had been magically impaired from the common rooms and dormitories, and he was taking it out on the students. Lily had unfortunately been the one to get in his way.   
Shaking the water out of her ears, she pulled her robes off and slipped her dress over her head, trying to ignore the annoying wrinkles of her shirt that were itching terribly. Flipping through the pages of the script fixed in her memory, she dashed onto the set, gasping for breath.   
"Where are we?"   
Lora looked at her dryly. "You're late."   
"I would never have guessed."   
"Page twenty, at the top. Your line," Eva jumped in, extremely anxious to avoid any strained tempers.   
Lily took a deep breath, straightened her skirt out, and transferred Abigail Williams' soul into her body. Glaring at the girls assembled around the bed in the attic, she gave her threatening lecture.   
"Now look you. All of you. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth's dead sisters. And that is all. And mark this. Let either of you breath a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you. And you know I can do it; I saw Indians smash my dear parents' heads on the pillow next to mine, and I have seen some reddish work done at night, and I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down!" She grasped the thin, spindly shoulders of the girl playing Betty on the bed, making her sit up. "Now you-sit up and stop this!"   
The Slytherin playing Betty finally slumped back naturally, not woodenly, as she had been doing. It was Mary Warren's cue for hysteria.   
"What's got her? Abby, she's going to die! It's a sin to conjure, and we-"   
"I say, shut it, Mary Warren!" She started for the girl, palm upraised.   
James let out a laugh from where he had just entered. "That is a direct threat to my servant! I'll have the law on you! Pleeceman! Pleeceman! Someone's being repressed!"   
Lily let out a sound quite similar to a whine. _Why did he insist on doing this?_   
The answer to that came quickly. Because he's James Potter.  
  
Everyone in the cast started getting terribly nervous as the Christmas holidays got closer and closer…two weeks…one week…three days…one day…   
All of them were sitting in the common room, going over lines. The tournament was being held four days before Christmas, which was only forty-eight hours away. Lora and Eva were bringing food up to the common room in order to not lose time in the Great Hall, and they were too preoccupied and worried to even think about the words 'food fight'.   
They had taken to wearing their costumes around Hogwarts; it was easier that way, since all the time they didn't spend on the set in the common room was in their beds or in the bathrooms. Now and then they would take short, sneaked breaks; Lily had seen James and Serena flying through the falling snow outside, and she and Lora were holding in loud snickers when the two returned, almost frostbitten.   
Severus was also staying at Hogwarts over the holidays; he was coming to the tournament along with the cast. When Lily asked him why, he gave her an extremely odd sideways glance that made her want to bite her tongue through at the roots, but she chose to shut up instead.   
He hadn't failed to notice that something was wrong, and, two days before the tournament, he cornered her near the library.   
"Lily, something's wrong that you're not telling me. What, is it Potter and his brats again?"   
She nodded. "Yes."   
"What is it? It's something serious, I know."   
Lily shrugged. "He's given out a secret I entrusted him with."   
Severus relaxed. "Is that all? You looked so—so—so as if it were more than that! What was it, a love story?" His eyes were still amused, but they had a hard glitter in them.   
"You're as bad as he is." She pushed him out of the way. "You also should know better than that. No— it's not that. It's far more serious—and I can't tell you. It's not my secret in the least."  
"But you told him."   
"And I learned from that."   
He sighed. "Lily—is it really that bad?"   
She gazed at him with a cold stare. "It was. All I can tell you is that it very likely is illegal."   
Whatever Severus expected, it wasn't that. "It's _what_?"  
"Illegal. I'm not saying another word."   
"Would you be concerned in it if the—er—other person got caught?"   
"I would."   
"And that prat Potter knew it?"   
"Yes." Her calmness was enviable, Severus thought; he could never have that much self-control. To keep his growing rage at the careless, selfish Gryffindor from showing, he changed the topic.   
"Lily, I know he and his gang go places every month. Do you have any idea where?"   
Lily, on her part, hadn't expected that either. "_What?_"  
"They go somewhere every month. Do you know anything about it?"   
She stiffened rather noticeably; her mind was racing—Remus—Remus—if Severus found out, he wouldn't care how much she begged him not to—if only to get the chance of revenge on the Marauders, he would spread the werewolf story all over England.   
"I don't."   
"Lily—yes, you do. Come on—what is it?"   
She pushed his hand off of her arm and started down the corridor, back to the Gryffindor common room.   
"I told you, I don't know. Even if I did—it's not my secret."   
Severus was losing all control he might have had at the beginning of their conversation; she was driving him over the edge of his sanity—what with the run-ins she always had with that Potter, the secrets she kept that only Potter knew, the fact that she had only visited him when she was escaping from James', and the undeniable factor—she was one of the most beautiful, friendly, talented, and mysterious girls he knew, and she had bothered to break through a barrier he had erected, had troubled herself with making his friendship.   
He didn't know another girl like her that would have done that for him. And he had stuck by her through everything she had encountered; now it seemed to him only too plain what was going on.   
She cared about Potter—cared about him more than anything else, and she was shielding him and his friends from something the rest of the world _couldn't_ find out.  
While these thoughts were going through his head and rage was taking over, he had stopped trying to pry information out of Lily, and she was vanishing down the corridor. Severus looked at one of his clenched fists, muttering something to himself.   
"Afterwards…I'll see. Who's right…who's wrong…who's secretly meeting the Quidditch hero of Gryffindor Tower."   
He spat the last few words out as he looked back up and couldn't see the flash of the blue Puritan dress and the red hair turning the corner.  
The cast could tell that she had been upset by something, but, as was their custom with Lily, they let her keep herself to herself; they didn't pry into her life, and she helped them with their schoolwork. It all evened out.   
Still, her mind wasn't on the rehearsal, and she missed one or two cues, something she'd never done before. Lora and Eva, after the rehearsal, picked Lily out of the batch of students.   
"Lily, what's wrong?"   
"You missed the Parris attic cue and the Father in Heaven one. It's got to be something big."   
Lily gave quite an unconvincing laugh. "Nothing. Nothing's wrong. Absolutely nothing. I'm quite all right."   
Lora eyed her friend quizzically. "You're not very good at lying, Lily."   
Eva snorted. "When she wants to be, she is. Lily, does this have anything to do with Sn—er—Severus?"   
Whirling, Lily fixed Eva with a searching glare. "How'd you know."   
"I didn't. But now I do. What happened?"   
Lily sighed. She had no right to tell her friends about Remus' problem, and even less of a right to tell them about Tom. Making up her mind instantly, she shook her head.   
"I know you know something happened, but allow me to keep it to myself, all right?"   
Eva wrinkled her nose. "He didn't _kiss _you, did he?"  
Lightly, Lily punched her friend in the arm as she headed for her dormitory. "No. You know me better."   
"Well, yes—but I don't know _him_."  
"Eva!"   
"What?"   
"Think _Lightning Sand_ and _death by suffocation_."  
"Okay, okay. I'll let it drop."   
"Good."   
Here Lora intervened. "Say, do any of you know how we're getting to the tournament? We can't possibly fly; it's snowing buckets outside…"   
The night of December twentieth, the entire cast was assembled in the entrance hall, each person with two or three bags. They were only staying for four days, but their luggage was packed to the point of bursting with stage make-up and costumes. Besides the cast, the backstage crew, and the chaperoning adults (James and Eva's parents and Professor McGonagall), half of the students that had stayed behind at Hogwarts were attending the event.   
Some of them had never been out of England, and they were excitedly looking forward to the picturesque all-wizarding village of Eschwegen—it had one of the largest stages in the wizarding world; it was famous for the productions it put on thrice a year, and it was a goal of every amateur actor and actress to perform on that stage.   
Amid the noisy chatter, Professor McGonagall stepped in front of the large entrance hall doors, clapping her hands until the great echoing chamber was silent.   
"We are bringing your mode of transportation around to the front steps. Please leave your luggage; you will be sleeping on the Transporter." She nodded at them, and, removing the padlock from the large doors, flung them open and let the stream of nervous and jittery nerves pass outside into the whirling snowstorm.   
They all stopped short when they saw the mode of transportation they were to use. It was a large, spherical, crystal-like ball, rising twenty feet into the sky or more, and looking for all the world like the most annoying crystals Professor Trelawney had stacked up on several of her shelves in the tower room she occupied. They wouldn't have known how to enter it if a door hadn't been open on the side of it; shaking snowflakes out of their eyes, they hurried inside.   
It was large and roomy inside; covered with a carpet stamped with the Hogwarts crest, it was inviting and warm. Bunks were stacked up to the ceiling, and they included warm blankets and two pillows a person. There were quite a few comfortable poufs placed almost haphazardly here and there on the floor, the only part of the place that wasn't circular. A lamp hung from the center of the ceiling, bathing the whole place in a warm yellow light.   
Suddenly talkative and excited, the students started claiming the bunks and throwing their bags onto the floor. They hadn't much room, as the sets were stacked against the walls, but it was comfortably crowded.   
Lily had clambered onto one of the highest bunk beds; the one that was closest to the ceiling. She unslung her two bags from her shoulder and let herself fall onto the pillow. She could see through the walls, outside the snow was whirling and beating only inches from her face.   
Seconds later, it seemed, they were being ordered onto their respective bunks. When they did so, a protective shield covered them, emerging from underneath each bunk.   
Professor McGonagall's voice could be heard through the shields; she was informing them that they were to refrain from undoing the protective shields until they were safely in the air. And then—and then—they took off.   
Lily didn't think she could have ever dreamed of such a mode of transportation. To take off, they started whirling, and then they rose, spitting miniature white lacy bits around them. Lily wondered for a few seconds at how dizzy she would get—but before she had time to, they were floating gently among grayish, dark clouds, and then, almost before she had time to draw a breath, the shield was being drawn up, and chatter resumed in the globe.  
It took only thirty minutes before they landed in Eschwegen; they came down softly; hardly anyone noticed the slight bump when they touched the ground. When they did land, Lily noticed something; the outside of their vehicle had melted into a picturesque inn, wooden, with beams covering the windows.   
Professor McGonagall rose from the chaperone's room, moved to the center of the globe, and clapped her hands once. The chatter immediately stopped.   
"We have arrived in Eschwegen, Germany. I will ask you to stay inside while I inform the judging committee of our arrival. You will not be allowed to leave this village; and if you decide to do some sight-seeing, by all means inform myself, Mr. or Mrs. Potter, or Mr. and Mrs. Doylen. Please keep the noise down; tomorrow you have your performance, and simply because we are not in Hogwarts does not mean that we do not expect you to behave as if you still were." She swept out of the doorway, letting in a few piles of snow that started to melt on the floor.   
Lily leaned back; pulling out a book, she gazed dreamily at the first page without reading it. She hadn't much time to think, though—a bounce on the bed told her that someone had just clambered over the railing.   
"Hallo, Lora."   
"Hallo. I've got the bunk next to you."   
"Really?"   
"Of course. Eva's down on the bottom. She doesn't like heights."   
Lily smiled. "I know."   
"So—" Lora curled her arms around her knees—"you nervous?"   
Lily closed her eyes, thinking hard about what she felt like; she retreated into a dimly lit world of mists and the noise of whirling snow and the sea.   
She flung her eyelids open. "No—I'm more peaceful than anything else. My mother never was nervous before a performance, she told me—I think I inherited that from her."   
Lora flung her out of the dreamy realm with the laugh like money. "Then inheritance is a good thing!"   
"Ye-es."   
"Lily, what're you thinking of?"   
Lily shrugged. "Mostly of tomorrow—I do hope I do well, and I pray that James doesn't do anything—anything of the sort he did during rehearsals."   
Lora smiled wickedly. "He wouldn't dare. We're both ready with our fists. And wands," she added as an afterthought. "But if he does anything, just—er—just do _something _out of the ordinary, and I"ll hex him for you."  
"Not onstage!"   
"No, Lily, I'll most definitely spoil our chances of winning two thousand Galleons in front of a panel of judges during a play we've worked on for months. Afterwards, you pillock!"   
"Why don't I feel complimented," Lily murmered.   
"Because you're not," Lora stated matter-of-factly.   
No one really slept too well that night. Lily woke up three times; once at two, once at three, and once at five. Each time she sat up in bed quickly, she could hear at least five people muttering something in their nightmares.   
"No…no…not the sheep! Don't feed the sheep!"   
"Goodness will prevail and we will all be happy people. But what about the teddy bears?"   
"Sheep!"   
"Peeves, one more move and I'll bloody belt you."   
"Not the shoelaces! Take me—but leave her the shoelaces!"   
"My sheep!"   
"_Do_ ruby slippers have shoelaces?"  
"Oysters and mice will overrun the world…and we will all be smothered in fuzzy hair and oyster shells…"   
They gulped down their hot cocoa the next morning with a ravenous appetite, and they were told it was their last dairy product for the day, since things with milk in them coat the throat and make it harder to enunciate. It was almost a catastrophe for those of them that had been counting on pounds of Chocolate Frogs to keep them awake, but James had had the foresight to stash a can of ground coffee and quite a lot of sugar in his bag.   
They sat in a circle for most of the day, running over lines and blocking, and fixing costumes that had been ripped or stained by something. The girls had taken their white aprons off after two disasters when they came in contact with hot coffee and had to be plunged into hot running water in a small sink, located behind a hidden panel near the chaperones' rooms.   
Finally, it was five o'clock. They all stood up and gave several variations of 'break a leg' wishes, then followed Professor McGonagall outside, onto the street packed with snow, towards a large, stone, friendly building. Flags were flying, flags with a crest on them: the two drama masks, surrounded with a motto:   
  
_ Tragoedia adeo anima—tragedies are life.   
The theater had only produced one or two comedies—the rest were tragedies._  
  
They stepped inside the theater in awe. Posters of former plays produced there were framed and hanging on the wall; their feet sank half an inch into the red velvet carpet lining the floor. Stained-glass windows were covered with deep red curtains embroidered with the theater's motto in gold thread, and the doors leading into the amphitheater-sized stage and audience area were carved with the tragedy and comedy masks on each curved pane of wood; the eyes, usually hollow, had sparkling gems set in them.   
It took quite a lot of harrumphing by Professor McGonagall and pushing by the other parents to get the cast and crew into a side door, labeled Behind the Scenes—_For Actors and Assistants only_. Even James was in awe of the thirty-foot-high ceiling and the magnificent size of the theater itself.  
Backstage, of course, wasn't nearly as fancy as the part of the building seen by the public, but it had the charms of rich black carpet and old-fashioned lanterns that could be turned up as high as they could go, and a sort of shield would prevent the beams from going anywhere but backstage.   
Upstairs, in the dressing rooms, the girls had two rooms; one for changing, the other for getting their hair and face paint done. The large oak cabinet was filled with enough hangers for everyone, including the other casts that were competing.   
The makeup room was fascinating; brilliantly lit crystal mirrors were set at intervals all around a counter that ran along a whole side of the room; two entire walls were nothing but mirrors. As many different shades of makeup as could be desired were packed neatly in kits; and it was good quality; none of the cheap things some theaters were packed with.   
There were two sinks, one at each end of the room, and at least forty quality brushes, ten curling irons and packs of curlers, at least thirty packs of hairpins, several bottles of a starchy homemade spray for the hair that held better than any sort of hairspray that could be found in stores, and a few pincushions and rolls of thread for loose buttons and ripped hems and such.   
The arrangement for the tournament was this: they were to change into their costumes, then report downstairs to the stage, along with the thirteen other troupes competing; they would be informed of the rules, and then the public was to be let in. The order in which they would compete would be drawn out of the theater's first trophy; a golden cup, laced with silver vines. They would be permitted, of course, to sit in a specially constructed balcony, and watch the others compete.   
This was a spectacular event for the theater itself; many rich wizards would be pouring in over the next three days; the International Ministry of Magic and the International Board of International Magical Cooperation was to attend; not to mention the general public; the public that would pay thirty Galleons a seat.   
Soberly, quietly, but with sudden bursts of eager excitement, they slipped into their full costume, along with the Puritan shoes that were anything but steadfast and the ridiculous caps and aprons. Lily, usually so avert to any sort of make-up and fancy hair arrangements, could be found with her hair artistically flung down her back, with curls here and there, and thick, black eyelashes. Her eyes were brought out scornfully with a brown tint, and her hands were artificially work-stained. Her mother had taught her enough to make her almost an expert.  
Lily was asked by almost all of the girls and most of the boys to do their face and hair for them; there was no denying that she had a talent for theatrical makeup. She had fun with the boys' makeup—James' especially. His character was the most powerful and domineering in the production, and he had to look the part.   
She spent almost ten minutes with the brown stain covering his skin; he was to be a farmer, therefore he had to work in the sun, Lily reasoned. His hair was grown out nicely; it had only taken a few months for it to reach shoulder-length. Dipping her hands in the hair starch and then in a sort of oil, she ran her fingers through his hair, regarding him with a critical eye.   
"What're you doing?"   
"Your hair, that's what. You don't take a bath every day; you're a farmer; your hair should be mildly greasy."   
"You want me to look like Snape?"   
"Don't flatter yourself." She was deliberately antagonizing him; if he was angry at her when the curtain came up, so much the better. "You couldn't look half of him."   
"Excuse me? You _fancy _that prat?"  
"No." Her cool, calm voice stopped his suspicions. "That was intended to be an insult. You don't seem to like his looks much; at least, that was the impression I received."   
"Well, then, just insult me normally, don't go at it a roundabout way!"   
"Let me get this straight." She accidentally pulled some of his hair out; he yelped, glaring at her. "You're _asking _me to insult you?"  
"No."   
"I thought not. Seemed like you'd just taken leave of whatever imitation senses you possessed at one point in time."   
"They're AWOL."   
"I see." Her eyebrows were knotted. "You've got a nasty tangle in your hair. Sit _still!_"  
Sirius swung into the doorway. "James, we've got ten minutes." James let out something between a snort and a grunt, and Lily clamped her hand over his mouth. Hard.   
"Will you shut up?! You asked me to do your hair; at least don't complain about your own tangles!"   
Sirius laughed. "She's got you there, my friend." Falsely confidentially, he stage-whispered to Lily, "He's broken his comb in his hair before…"  
Lily finally finished with James, and even he had to admit that she had done quite well.   
"No question about it; if this was revolving around the makeup, we'd win, hands down." He grinned at Lily, who involuntarily smiled back.   
They trooped downstairs with eyes wide with anticipation, and everyone gathered on the stage. Lily looked around—there was a group from China; one from Egypt—another from Italy, three from America, one from a Brazilian school, two from Russia, two from Australia, one from Germany, and one from Spain.   
The different costumes, all jumbled together, seemed to make hardly any sense: the Puritan costumes of the English troupe, the swordsmen and their extravagantly dressed ladies from America, the Merchant of Venice cast from Italy.   
One cast from America was in a shade of green blending in with leaves they wore around their heads and twined around the hilts of there swords; one of the groups from Russia were in armour and weaponed; the other was in a flurry of 1920s clothing. There were bright spots all over the stage, dulled with the brown and dirt-like colors of the other costumes, and it was fun to imagine the plays they would be performing.   
The International Head of the Ministry of Magic was composed of the Ministers of Magic of every country. Rowland Sikora was there; and Lily saw him wave to Serena. Some were in traditional costume of their country; others were merely in expensive robes. They were either pleasantly awaiting the performances or nervously looking at watches, though most of them were politely sitting still, waiting for the Head of the International Magical Cooperation to speak.   
A rather fat old man came forward; he was one of the only ones in a black suit and tie, with a white shirt. A gold watch-chain was hanging artistically from his shirt pocket, and a handkerchief with the theater's drama masks was in the other pocked. He cleared his throat noisily and stepped forward, his shined, black shoes squeaking against each other.   
"My dear, my _very _friends. This is the five hundredth year this theater has been in existence, and, as its director, I have decided to promote its proud continuation with this bringing together of adults and students from all over the world. Welcome."  
Something about the way his mouth moved caught Lily's eye; she leaned inconspicuously closer. He was speaking in German, but to her ears it sounded English, and his mouth was forming the German words for his speech. She was interested; she knew exactly where in the library she could find a book that taught her about that kind of charm, and she wanted to try it. Meanwhile, the Head was still speaking.   
"In a few minutes, this theater and contest will be open to the public. We will ask you to, if you wish, remain quietly on the balcony—" he gestured above his head and towards the audience—"that has been constructed for your especial use. You may reach it by a door near the dressing rooms labeled _Cast Audience._"  
"I will ask you to, naturally, remain quiet and respect the other troupes. No sabotage of any sort will be indulged upon, and if this is attempted, the troupe to which the offender's belong will be dismissed from the tournament.   
"The judges will be looking for presentation, projection, the ease with which the piece flows, the comfortableness of the actors with their surroundings and their lines, and, naturally, the acting in general. That being said, my friends, 'break a leg.' To our friends including dancing in their piece, I say 'Merde.' Above all, enjoy yourselves, and we look forward to a wonderful performance!"   
The loud sound of clapping filled the air, and they were directed to the 'green room' backstage, the room where the actors waited for the theater to fill. As quietly as possible, they made their way upstairs, as they could hear the rustling of ladies' robes and handbags entering the theater.   
The green room connected the boys' and girls' dressing rooms, and it was the size of all four rooms combined, which, in this case, was a good thing. _The Crucible_'s cast drew to a corner and started rehearsing; Lucius was trying to embed the fact that when one was pretending to be dead, one did not start fixing one's hair to the girl playing Betty, James was talking softly to Serena, Lora was jumping around, hooking little fingers with all of the cast and whispering "Break a leg!", and then giving them a kiss on each cheek—she had been to France on a holiday last Easter.  
Lily was sewing up James' cloak; he had managed to catch it on a hook and had torn it nastily. The nine accusing girls were fluttering as they went over their scene in the courtroom, and Frank Longbottom was trying to remember one of his lines—the "Have you gone daft, Corey?" from the beginning of Act Three was escaping him constantly.   
Finally, the noise downstairs subsided, the voice of the theater's director announced a few things, and then he began with the pulling of casts out of the golden cup. He removed the tarpaulin from a statue that was to be awarded to the winner; the actors upstairs either blanched or reddened at the applause they could hear.   
Then, a sheet of rolled-up parchment hanging from the wall unrolled itself, and names began writing themselves in thick, black ink; the order in which they would go.   
Frank bustled back with his knowledge: they were thirteenth on the list. Several people moaned.   
"You mean we're last?"   
"We're _thirteenth?_ Thirteenth is my unlucky number!"  
"I can't do this! I can't go last. I want to get this over with."   
"Hey, last is good! The judges'll have a fresh impression of our performance!"   
They went on in that vein until fresh markings appeared on the roll of parchment; the American troupe dressed in green stood up, some of them excited, others pale with apprehension. To applause from the other casts, they trooped downstairs and, with the fall of an almost deathly hush, they began.  
One after another, the plays that night went on. Robin Hood, tales from A Thousand and One Nights, The Great Gatsby, something in the time period of the Three Musketeers, The Merchant of Venice…


	55. NO killing award presentersNO killing aw...

The third night was the time of the final performance by the Hogwarts students, besides being the night when the winning troupe would be presented with their award and the two thousand Galleons. After making sure their props were where they needed to be, Reverend Parris and Betty scurried to their places, and the curtain went up.   
The door opened, and his slave, Tituba entered, frightened and in a flurry.   
"My Betty be hearty soon?"   
Parris rose to his feet. "Out of here!"   
Tituba started to back towards the door. "My Betty not goin' die…"   
"Out of my sight! Out of my—" Tituba vanished, and he collapsed. "Oh, my God! God help me!"   
Recovering himself, he took Betty's hand. "Betty. Child. Dear child. Will you wake, will you open your eyes! Betty, little one…"   
He knelt down again, and Lily entered, somewhat frightened, worried, and apprehended.   
"Uncle? Susanna Walcott's here from Doctor Griggs."   
"Oh?" He looked up. "Let her come, let her come."   
Lily leaned out of the door, calling. "Come in, Susannah."   
Susannah told Parris that the doctor couldn't find a remedy for Betty's still stiffness, and that they might look to witchcraft for the cause. Parris emphatically denied witchcraft, and sent her away. Parris turned on Abigail.   
"Abigail, I cannot go before the congregation when I know you have not opened with me. What did you do with her in the forest?"   
Lily tossed her head, though she was obviously unnerved. "We did dance, uncle, and when you leaped out of the bush so suddenly, Betty was frightened and then she fainted. And there's the whole of it."   
He didn't believe her. "Child. Sit you down."   
He lectured her on telling him the truth, for if he was proven to have associated himself with witchcraft, he would be driven from his pulpit. Several other village women entered, declaring that Betty had been 'witched'. The news came out that Ruth Putnam, another daughter in the village, was sick, too, and that Ruth had been sent to Tituba to find out why her seven brothers died at childbirth. Parris still refused to believe in witchcraft in his house, and then he left Abigail, Betty, and two other girls in the attic; Mercy Lewis and Mary Warren.   
Mercy, in a cold cruelty, walked over to Betty. "Have you tried beatin' her? I gave Ruth a good one and it waked her for a minute. Here, let me have her."   
Oddly protective, Lily held Mercy back. "No; he'll be comin' up. Listen now—if they be questioning us, tell them we danced—I told his as much already."   
Mercy was uneasy. "Aye. And what more?"   
"He knows Tituba conjured Ruth's sisters to come out of the grave."   
"And what more?"   
Ruthlessly, Lily continued. "He say you naked."   
Mercy clapped her hands together in front of her mouth, terrified. "Oh, Jesus!"   
Mary Warren started to cry. "What'll we do? The village is out! I just come from the farm; the whole country's talkin' witchcraft! They'll be calling us witches, Abby!"   
She meant to tell, the other girls knew it, and then Mary told them they had to—"Witchery's a hangion' error, a hangin' like they done in Boston two year ago! We must tell the truth, Abby!"   
Abigail scorned the threat from Mary, and she quickly went over to Betty's bed, Upon shaking, Betty woke up, and she turned on Abigail.   
"You didn't tell him everything! You drank blood, Abby! You didn't tell him that!"   
"Betty! You never say that again! You will never!"  
"You did, you did!" Betty was crying hysterically. "You drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!"   
Rage came over Abigail's face, and she smashed Betty across hers. "Shut it! Now shut it!"   
Betty collapsed, weeping, onto the bed, and Abigail turned to the other girls with her threatening speech about stabbing them in their sleep if they told anything but that they danced. When she finished, James entered, frowning, radiating an air of 'making the fool feel his foolishness', and letting his cloak fall from his shoulders carelessly. Obviously frightened, Mercy and Mary left the attic with various excuses, and James, Lily, and the girl playing the once again inert Betty were left alone.   
Lily had been absorbing his presence wide-eyed since he entered, and now she tiptoed forward. "Gah! I'd almost forgot how strong you are, John Proctor!"   
With the same knowing smile on his face, James looked up at her. "What's this mischief here?"   
Lily told him what had gone on last night, with a shy, winning smile on her face.   
"Ah, you're wicked yet, are you?" James laughed heartily. "You'll be clapped in the stocks before you're twenty."   
He turned to go, but Lily took his hand and turned him around, softer than she had been with anyone that day. "Give me a word, John. A soft word."   
He frowned at her. "No, no, Abby. That's done with." He pulled his hand away, but she took his other one.   
"You come five mile to see a silly girl fly? I know you better." Her jeering, taunting tone again set him at ease, and, almost overcome with the spell of the Puritan time, her lies and her love, he pushed her aside again.   
"I come to see what mischief you uncle's brewin' now. Put it out of mind, Abby."   
Lily laid her hand on his shoulder, so light he hardly felt it. "John—I am waiting' for you every night."   
"Abby, I never gave you hope to wait for me."   
Starting to anger, her sweet tone turned harsh. "I have something better than hope, I think!"   
"Abby!" His unsympathetic tone made her draw back. "You'll put it out of mind. I'll not be comin' for you more."   
She couldn't believe it. "You're surely sporting with me!"   
James, determined to go through with his resolution, clenched his teeth. "You know me better."   
Outraged, Lily took his collar in one hand, making him look her in the eyes, the glaring orbs that were impassioned with furious indignation.   
"I know how you clutched my back behind your house and sweated like a stallion whenever I came near! Or did I dream that? It's she put me out, you cannot pretend it were you. I saw your face when she put me out, and you loved me then and you do now!"   
"Abby!" James pushed her away from him, telling her that was done with, and that he didn't care for her. Lily refused to believe his words, and she made one last appeal, with tears in her eyes.   
"I look for John Proctor that put knowledge into my heart! I never knew what pretense Salem was, I never knew the lying lessons I was taught by all these Christian women and their covenanted men! And now you bid me tear the light out of my eyes? I will not, I cannot! You loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet!" The tears were spilling down her face now as James turned to go; she rushed to him.   
"Oh, John, pity me, pity me!"  
James stared. He had _never _heard her say anything with that much emotion in it—no exclamations of fear or anger or anything she had ever said had seemed to mean as much to her as her plea just had. Quite frankly, he couldn't move; he couldn't force himself to say anything; he was awestruck. Thankfully, it made a good effect, and just then, from offstage, someone started singing a psalm, and the words 'going up to Jesus' were heard. Betty sat straight up in bed at that, clapping her hands to her ears and whining loudly, screaming bloody murder.  
The noise snapped James out of his trance; he followed Lily over to Betty's bed as Lily tried to pull Betty's hands off of her ears. Pandemonium ensued; the crowd of neighbors crowded into the room, and several women almost went hysterical at the words of witchcraft flung back and forth. In the middle of it, Reverend John Hale entered, an expert on the subject of witchcraft; he had signed death warrants for several people in Boston, and Parris had asked him to come down.   
Several people came up to him, asking what the meaning was of their wife's reading of books in secret, and things of the sort, and finally Hale called Abigail to him, to question her on the happenings of the other night. Almost petrified, she answered his question of what kind of dancing they had been doing.   
"Why—common dancing is all."   
Parris interrupted. "I think I ought to say that I—I saw a kettle in the grass where they were dancing."   
Lily, frightened anew, leaned on the bedpost. "That were only soup!"   
Hale frowned. "What kind of soup were in this kettle, Abigail?"   
"Why, it were beans, and—" She stopped to think wildly. "And lentils, I think. And—"   
Hale turned to Parris. "Mr. Parris, you did not notice, did you, any living thing in the kettle? A mouse, perhaps, a spider, a frog--?"   
Fearfully, Parris admitted to seeing movement in the kettle, and Abigail jumped in again. "That leaped in, we never put it in!"   
Quickly, Hale questioned her. "What jumped in?"   
She realized her mistake. "Why, a very little frog jumped—"   
"A frog, Abby!" Parris was outraged.   
Hale grasped Abigail's arm so forcefully that she cried out. "Abigail, it may be your cousin is dying! Did you call the Devil last night?"   
"I never called him," she protested frantically. "Tituba—Tituba—"   
Parris blanched. "She called the Devil?"   
"I should like to speak with Tituba," Hale stated firmly.   
Mrs. Putnam, a neighbor, exited to bring the slave, and Hale turned to Abigail again. "How did she call him?"   
Thrashing about for an answer, Lily landed on the first she could think of. "I know not—she spoke Barbados. I didn't see no Devil!" She started shaking Betty. "Betty, wake up. Betty! Betty!"   
"You cannot evade me, Abigail." Hale's voice was firm. "Did your cousin drink some of the brew in that kettle?"  
"She never drank it!"   
Something was radiating from Lily; a sense of frightened hysteria that made some of the onlookers feel as if they themselves were being questioned for murder; it made them want to scream, to run somewhere.   
"Did you drink it?"   
"No, sir!"   
"Did Tituba ask you to drink it?"   
She immediately resumed an innocent, angelic look. "She tried, but I refused."   
Hale stemmed his fists in his sides. "Why are you concealing? Have you sold yourself to Lucifer?"   
She couldn't keep the terror out of her eyes or her voice. "I never sold myself! I'm a good girl! I'm a proper girl!"   
Her eyes fell on Tituba, who had just entered. Pointing a finger accusingly at the slave, she retreated to the other side of the bed.   
"She made me do it! She made Betty do it!"   
Tituba was shocked. "Abby!"   
Lily didn't falter. "She makes me drink blood!"   
Hale let out an exclamation. They started questioning Tituba closely, refusing to believe her protestations of innocence, and finally urging her to confess all, after they had led her to say that she had seen people from Salem with the Devil.   
"Take courage, child," Hale told her, "you must give us all their names. How can you bear to see this child suffering?" He gestured towards Betty. "Look at her, Tituba. Look at her God-given innocence; her soul is so tender, we must protect her, Tituba; the Devil is out and preying on her like a beast upon the flesh of the pure lamb. God will bless you for your help!"   
Lily had drawn back against the wall at the maniacal interviewing of the blubbering lady, and, a gleam of inspiration shining on her face, she stepped forward, her hands clasped, and her eyes uplifted.   
"I want to open myself!" The occupants of the attic whirled around to face her, but she sank to her knees, hands still clasped.  
"I want to open myself!" The occupants of the attic whirled around to face her, but she sank to her knees, hands still clasped. "I want the light of God; I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil; I saw him; I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus, I kiss his hand." The angelic look faded from her face, and desperately, almost frantically, she started crying out her lines. "I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!"   
Betty awoke, and, sitting up in bed, with a fever in her eyes, picked up where Lily had left off. "I saw George Jacobs with the Devil! I saw Goody Howe with the Devil!"   
With an exclamation of relief, Parris rushed over to Betty, embracing her. "She speaks!"   
Hale lifted his hands in prayer. "Glory to God! It is broken, they are free!"   
With great relief, Betty was still crying out her list of names. "I saw Martha Bellows with the Devil!"   
Almost gleefully, Lily joined her again. "I saw Goody Sibbers with the Devil!"   
A rich landowner, Thomas Putnam, went for the door. "The marshal, I'll call the marshal!"   
Betty rose onto her knees. "I saw Alice Barrow with the Devil!"   
Hale called out after Putnam, "Let the marshal bring irons!"   
The curtain started to fall on Lily's and Betty's ecstatic cries.   
"I saw Goody Hawkins with the Devil!"   
"I saw Goody Bibber with the Devil!"   
"I saw Goody Booth with the Devil!"   
Breathless, the girls almost collapsed as the curtain fell and the resounding applause came to their ears.   
Smiling and grinning with glee, they made their way offstage, helping quickly with the rearranging of the sets.   
Lily had no part in the next act; it was mostly James and the Ravenclaw girl; John and Elizabeth Proctor. She had made her way to the balcony for the casts, and she quietly fastened her eyes on the stage.   
The act took place in the Proctor farmhouse, and Elizabeth was urging John to tell the court that Abigail was a fraud, for soon Abigail would cry out against Elizabeth, seeking to take her place as John's wife. Mary Warren, their servant girl, confirmed Elizabeth's suspicions by coming in from testifying in court and telling them that Abigail had accused Elizabeth. In the middle of their scene, Mr. Hale entered.   
"Good evening."   
James looked up. "Why, Mr. Hale! Good evening to you, sir. Come in, come in." He pulled a chair out from underneath the table."   
Hale nodded to Elizabeth. "I hope I do not startle you."   
Several polite nothings were murmered, and then Mr. Hale started to question them as to their faith. They had been in church only twenty-six times in seventeen months; Hale put great weight upon that. Three of his children were not baptized, and Hale remonstrated James dearly for that. Then he asked them as to their knowledge of the Bible.   
"Do you know your Commandments, Elizabeth?"   
Eagerly, she nodded, with an open face. "I surely do. There be no mark of blame upon my life, Mr. Hale. I an a covenanted Christian woman."   
"And you, Mister?" He pointed to James, who started to sweat a trifle.   
"I—I am sure I do, sir."   
Hale glanced at Elizabeth's eager face, then at James', and he pointed to him. "Let you repeat them, then."   
"The Commandments." James was stalling."   
"Aye." Hale rested a hand upon his knee and waited.   
James looked away; he wiped the sweat from his brow. "Thou shalt not kill."   
"Aye."   
He was counting on his fingers. "Thou shalt not steal Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods, nor make onto thee any graven image. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain; thou shalt not have no other gods before me." He started to hesitate. "Thou shalt remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy." He paused. "Thou shalt honor thy father and mother. Thou shalt not bear false witness."   
He was stuck. Silently, he kept counting over and over on his fingers, flailing for the missing Commandment. "Thou shalt not make onto thee any graven image."   
Hale frowned. "You have said that twice, sir."   
"Aye." He wiped his forehead again.   
Delicately, Elizabeth interposed. "Adultery, John."   
James winced. "Aye." He tried to grin at Mr. Hale. "You see, sir, between the two of us we do know them all."   
Hale only looked at James, clearly thinking hard; while James became more uneasy. "I think it be a small fault."   
With an impeccable air of righteousness, Hale rose. "Theology, sir, is a fortress; no crack in a fortress may be accounted small." In deep thought, he started to pace the room.   
Elizabeth urged John to tell him what Abigail had told him, in the attic, that they had merely been dancing, and it was all posh; there was no witchcraft about it. Hale listened eagerly; then they were interrupted. Giles Corey and Francis Nurse, both husbands of two exceedingly upright and faithful women, entered the room, distraught with fear.   
Giles, an old man, hobbled over to James, pleading with his eyes, as if he could make everything come right again. "They take my wife."   
Francis made an indistinct sound in the corner, and Giles gestured to him. "And his Rebecca!"   
James was astounded. "Rebecca's in the _jail?_"  
Rebecca Nurse was arrested for the 'supernatural murder of Goody Putnam's babies', Martha Corey for bewitching a neighbor with her books. Then the court clerk, Ezekiel Cheever, entered, with a warrant for Elizabeth Proctor.  
James demanded proof fiercely, and, in answer, Cheever caught up a doll, what he called a 'poppet', that Mary had made in court that day and given to Elizabeth Proctor. Elizabeth smiled wryly as she handed it to him.   
"Has the court discovered a text in poppets now?"   
Cheever turned it over, avoiding her eyes. "Do you keep any others in this house?"   
James interrupted. "No, nor this one either till tonight. What signifies a poppet?" He was nervous and apprehensive, jumping at the squeak of the chair that Elizabeth pulled out.   
"Why, a poppet—" Cheever was gingerly handling it—"a poppet may signify—Now, woman, will you please to come with me?"   
James knew what ground he was standing on, and he reached for Elizabeth, pulling her behind him. "She will not!" Turning to his wife, he gave her an order. "Fetch Mary here."   
"No!" Cheever reached for Elizabeth's arm. "I am forbidden to let her out of sight."   
James pushed the clerk away, almost sneering. "You'll leave her out of sight and out of mind, Mister. Fetch Mary, Elizabeth."   
Elizabeth obeyed and left the room, and Mr. Hale turned to Cheever. "What signifies a poppet, Mr. Cheever?"   
The man turned the small doll over in his hands again, almost stuttering. "Why, they say it may signify that she—" He had turned the doll's skirt over, and drew a long, sharp, gleaming needle from its belly.   
"Why, this—this! It's a needle, Hale, a needle!" His whole face had changed; it was disgusted and wide-eyed; and somewhat terrified as he glanced towards James, who was striding towards him.   
"And what signifies a needle?"   
Cheever's hands were doing a rather good job of shaking as he gave his answer. "why, this go hard with her, Proctor—this—I had my doubts, Proctor, I had my doubts, but here's calamity." He showed the needle to Hale. "You see, sir, it is a needle?"   
"Why?" Hale was confused. "What meanin' has it?"   
Cheever was trembling. "The girl, the Williams girl, Abigail Williams, sir. She sat to dinner in the Reverend Parris' house tonight, and without word nor warning' she falls to the floor. Like a struck beast, he says, and screamed a scream that a bull would weep to hear. And he goes to save her, and, stuck two inches in the flesh of her belly, he drew a needle out. And demandin' of her how she come to be so stabbed, she—" he gestured to James—"testify it were your wife's familiar spirit pushed it in."   
James was outraged. "Why, she done it herself!" He swung on Hale. "I hope you're not takin' this for proof, Mister!"   
Hale was silent, and then Mary Warren and Elizabeth emerged again.   
Cheever and James interrogated her, and it came to light that she had made the doll in the court, and that she had put the needle in the stomach of it for safekeeping, on Abigail's bidding. Nevertheless, Cheever insisted on taking Elizabeth to the jail.   
Elizabeth laid a hand on his arm. "I'll go, John."   
He swung fiercely towards the clerk. "You will not go!"   
Herrick, another judge, frowned at him. "I have nine men outside. You cannot keep her. The law binds me, John, I cannot budge."   
Desperately, James turned to Hale, putting a forceful hand on his shoulder, so that the weaker man almost crumpled. "Will you see her taken?"   
"Proctor, the court is just—"   
"Pontius Pilate!" James was raging now, and something about him struck everyone around him as though they were watching a rabid dog free of kennel and chain. "God will not let you wash your hands of this!"   
Elizabeth's quiet tone calmed him, wiping away some of his anger. "John—I think I must go with them."   
He turned his face away; he could not look at her, but she continued. "Mary, there is bread enough for the morning; you will bake in the afternoon. Help Mr. Proctor as though you were his daughter—you owe me that, and much more." She was fighting back tears. "When the children wake, speak nothing of witchcraft—it will frighten them." She turned away; she could not speak.   
James took her in his arms. "I will bring you home. I will bring you home soon."   
She let go of her self-control and clutched at his shirt. "Oh, John, bring me soon!"   
He clenched his teeth. "I will fall like an ocean on that court! Fear nothing, Elizabeth."   
She smiled slightly, through tears. "I will fear nothing." She turned away, then looked back. "Tell the children I have gone to visit someone sick." She let Herrick lead her out, and James followed her; the clank of chain reached the audience's ears.   
That simple sound almost drove James mad. He rushed outside. "Herrick! Herrick, don't chain her! Damn you, man, you will not chain her! Off with them! I'll not have it! I will not have her chained!"   
He finally gave in, unwillingly, and Herrick and Cheever bore him, struggling, back inside. Herrick was gasping out an apology.   
"In God's name, John, I cannot help myself. I must chain them all. Now let you keep inside the house till I am gone!" He left the room, and, one by one the others left him, till only he and Mary Warren, who was weeping in a corner, were still there. Frightened, she lifted up her head.   
"Mr. Proctor, very likely they'll let her come home once they're given proper evidence."   
James let his gaze fall on her. In a voice that could freeze beer, he said: "You're coming to the court with me, Mary. You will tell it in the court."   
Mary cringed. "I cannot charge murder on Abigail!"   
He moved menacingly towards her. "You will tell the court how that poppet come here and who stuck the needle in."   
Mary flattened herself against the wall as he approached, with a fiery gleam in his eyes. "She'll kill me for sayin' that!"   
James took no notice that she had said anything; he was about to grasp her arm.   
"Abby'll charge lechery on you, Mr. Proctor!" she shrieked, at the end of her wits.   
That simple sentence stopped James dead in his tracks. With a dry, cold voice, he gasped out, "She's told you!"   
"I have known it, sir. She'll ruin you with it, I know she will."   
Hesitating, and with a hatred of himself, James finally spoke. "Good. Then her saintliness is done with."   
Mary backed away from him. "We will slide together into our pit; you will tell the court what you know."   
She was terrified. "I cannot; they'll turn on me—"   
He strode quickly over to her, grasping her by the shoulders and shaking her wildly, clenching his teeth, while she was repeating "I cannot! I cannot!"   
"My wife will never die for me! I will bring your guts into your mouth but that goodness will not die for me!"   
Mary struggled to escape him. "I cannot do it, I cannot!"   
Almost beyond sanity, James grasped her by the throat. "Make your peace with it! Now Hell and Heaven grapple on our backs, and all our old pretense is ripped away—make your peace!" He threw her to the floor; she remained there, sobbing into her palms.   
"Peace. It is a providence, and no great change; we are only what we always were, but naked now." Turning towards the audience, he leaned on the table for support. "Aye, naked! And the wind, God's icy wind, will blow!"   
The curtain fell with him standing upright, facing everyone, and Mary crying out "I cannot, I cannot!" as she lay kneeling on the floor.   
They had taken the next scene from the back of the script; it was not usually used, but they had decided to. It was in a wood, at night; the only actors were James and Lily; John Proctor and Abigail.   
James entered with his lantern glowing; then he halted. Lily appeared with a dark cloak over her head and her loose red hair falling over her shoulders, unbound; she was in a nightgown, smiling faintly triumphantly. There was a moment of silence.   
James, searching, nodded curtly. "I must speak with you, Abigail."   
She didn't move; she was still staring at him.   
"Will you sit?"   
Lily let the wrap fall from her head. "How do you come?"   
"Friendly," he answered.   
She glanced about, drawing the cloak back over her head. "I don't like the woods at night. Pray you, stand closer." Her eyes lit up as he moved to stand beside her. "I knew it must be you. When I heard the pebbles on the window, before I opened up my eyes I knew." She sat down on a log. "I thought you would come a good time sooner."   
He faintly smiled. "I had thought to come many times."   
"Why didn't you?" She shook her hair free of the wrap. "I am so alone in the world now."   
Not bitterly, James frowned. "Are you! I've heard that people ride a hundred mile to see your face these days."   
"Aye," she agreed, "my face. Can you see my face?"   
He held the lantern to her face. "Then you're troubled?"   
Her eyes flashed. "Have you come to mock me?"   
"No, no." He set the lantern on the ground. "But I hear only that you go to the tavern every night, and play shovelboard with the Deputy Governor, and they give you cider."   
She shrugged. "I have once or twice played the shovelboard. But I have no joy in it."   
James was honestly astounded. "This is a surprise, Abby. I'd thought to find you gayer than this. I'm told a troop of boys go step for step with you wherever you walk these days."   
"Aye," her voice confirmed bitterly. "they do. But I have only lewd looks from the boys."   
"And you like that not?"   
Helplessly, but with a grasping aura around her that James could not see, she leaned against his shoulder.   
"I cannot bear lewd looks no more, John. My spirit's changed entirely. I ought to be given Godly looks when I suffer for them as I do."   
"Oh? How do you suffer, Abby?"   
She gave a short laugh, and the audience was suddenly aware of the grasping, avaricious nature of the girl, driven mad by passion. Lily pulled up the skirt of her dress; visible marks were there. "Why, look at my leg. I'm holes all over from their damned needles and pins." Gently, she touched her stomach. "That jab your wife gave me's not yet healed, y'know."   
He saw her madness, and steeled himself against it. "Oh, it isn't."   
"I think sometimes she pric ks it open again while I sleep."   
"Ah?" His incredulous tone held jarring sarcasm in it.   
"And George Jacobs—" here she leaned closer to him and slid up her sleeve—"he comes again and again and raps me with his stick—the same spot every night all this week. Look at the lump I have!" Her eyes appealed to him.   
"Abby—" James shook his head—"George Jacobs is in the jail all this month.   
"Thank God he is," she exclaimed, "and bless the day he hangs and lets me sleep in peace again! Oh, John, the world's so full of hypocrites!" Her tone changed to astonishment; she was outraged. "They pray in jail. I'm told they all pray in jail!"   
He acted confused. "They may not pray?"   
She stood, indignant. "And torture me in my bed while sacred words are comin' from their mouths! Oh, it will need God Himself to cleanse this town properly!"   
James, amazed, caught her by the sleeve. "Abby—you mean to cry out still others?"   
With a sacred air about her, she answered, head thrown back in determination. "If I live, if I am not murdered, I surely will, until the last hypocrite is dead."   
He sighed. "Then there is no good?"   
Her tone softened. "Aye, there is one." She turned toward him, a strange light shining in her eyes, and her face inches from his. "You are good."   
"Am I! How am I good?"   
"Why," she gasped, as if it were self-evident, "you taught me goodness, therefore you are good. It were a fire you walked me through, and all my ignorance was burned away. It were a fire, John, we lay in fire. And from that night no woman dare call me wicked any more but I knew my answer. I used to weep for my sins when the wind lifted up my skirts; and blushed for shame when some old Rebecca called me loose. And then you burned my ignorance away." She lifted her eyes close to his, and her tone changed, accusing, threatening, helpless, and strengthened. "As bare as some December tree I saw them all—walking like saints to church, running to feed the sick, and hypocrites in their hearts! And God gave me the strength to call them liars, and God made men to listen to me, and by God I will scrub the world clean for the love of Him! Oh, John, I will make you such a wife when the world is white again!" She bent and kissed his hand. "You will be amazed to see me every day, a light of heaven in your house, a—"   
He rose, and backed away, amazed.   
Lily frowned, with a childlike puzzlement on her face. "Why are you cold?"   
"My wife goes to trial in the morning, Abigail."   
Distantly, she asked, "Your wife?"   
He started to grow furious. "Surely you knew of it?"   
She smiled, almost relieved. "I do remember it now. How—how—Is she well?"   
He turned his back on her. "As well as she may be, thirty-six days in that place."   
Lily gave something close to a whimper. "You said you came friendly!"   
"She will not be condemned, Abby." He spoke so firmly that she was shaken.   
"You—you—" Lily was faintly outraged. "You brought me from my bed to speak of her?"   
"I come to tell you, Abby," he intoned, "what I will do tomorrow in the court. I would not take you by surprise, but give you all good time to think on what to do to save yourself."   
Speechless, she managed to gasp out, "Save myself!"   
Grimly, he nodded. "If you do not free my wife tomorrow, I am set and bound to ruin you, Abby."   
Her voice was small and astonished as she drew back. "How—ruin me?"   
Stony and irremovable, he stood before her. "I have rocky proof in documents that you knew that poppet were none of my wife's; and that you yourself bade Mary Warren stab that needle into it."   
A clear wildness was stirring in Lily; the wildness of a frustrated child denied its wish; but she was still grasping for her wits. "_I _bade Mary Warren?"  
He could have sniffed. "You know what you do, you are not so mad!"   
"Oh, hypocrites!" The tone of her voice was heart-rending. "Have you won him, too? John, whoy do you let them send you?"   
"I warn, you, Abby!"   
"They send you!" she cried. "They steal your honesty and—"   
"I have found my honesty!" His voice came down on her like thunder rolling down a hill.   
"No," she said with such certainty that he was forced to pay attention to her words. "No. This is your wife pleading, your sniveling, envious wife! This is Rebecca's voice, Martha Corey's voice. You were no hypocrite!"   
He was raging. "I will prove you for the fraud you are!"   
She tossed her head triumphantly; she was sure she would win; she was convincing everyone she was in control. "And if they ask you why Abigail would ever do so murderous a deed, what will you tell them?"   
James looked her full in the face. "I will tell them why."   
Lily laughed, a short, bitter, disbelieving laugh. "What will you tell? You will confess to fornication? In the court?"   
He grasped her by both arms, tightly. "If you will have it so, so I will tell it!"   
She uttered a laugh more grating and jeering, more tormenting and sure of herself than she had ever done before that night, and the audience felt their faith in John Proctor shake.   
"I say I will!"   
Lily laughed louder now, with more certainty added to it; he never would give her in to the court. He shook her roughly.   
"If you can still hear, hear this! Can you hear?" She was trembling, staring at him as though he were out of his mind. "You will tell the court you are blind to spirits; you cannot see them any more, and you will never cry witchery again, or I will make you famous for the who re you are!"   
She grabbed him, put both palms on his shoulders, her fingers touching behind his neck. "Never in this world! I know you, John—you are at this moment singing secret hallelujahs that your wife will hang!"   
James threw her down onto the ground, disgusted. "You mad, you murderous witch!"   
"Oh!" she gasped, picking herself up, "how hard it is when pretense falls! But it falls, it falls!" Wrapping herself up, ready to depart, she smiled victoriously again, the audience was repulsed by her cruelty. "You have done your duty by her. I hope it is your last hypocrisy. I pray you will come again with sweeter news for me. I know you will—now your duty's done. Good night, John." Like an angel in the mist, she was retreating out of sight, raising her hand in farewell, the white night-gown glimmering in the dawn of the forest's gloom. "Fear naught. I will save you tomorrow." She turned to go, then swerved lightly back. "From yourself I will save you."   
She was gone. Dazed, James shook his head, amazed, terrified. He picked up the lantern, and, jerkily, left the stage in the opposite direction, slowly.   
Everyone was grinning vigorously and whispering out heartfelt congratulations, especially to Lily—there was no denying that she was the one that had put the dramatic flair, the hurt, the evil, the malicious unfulfilled desire into the scene. They were all hugging each other insanely in the middle of setting up for the third act; the courtroom.

The next scene opened in a room outside the court; Giles Corey and Francis Nurse were demanding entrance in order to give evidence to have their wives released. The judges came out, speaking severely to them while Parris kept accusing them of trying to overthrow the court. Then James and Mary entered, James holding a deposition that Mary had signed, witnessing that the girls were frauds, and their crying out against townspeople was a lie. They were ordered into the court to give their evidence, and James pushed Mary forward lightly.   
Frank Longbottom, Judge Danforth, peered at Mary. "She's not hearty, I see."   
James looked up. "No, she's not, sir." He bent down to Mary. "Now remember what the angel Raphael said to the boy Tobias. Remember it."   
In a whisper one could hardly hear, Mary answered. "Aye."   
"Do that which is good, and no harm shall come to you."   
She nodded again. "Aye."   
Danforth rapped the judges' table with his knuckes. "Come, man, we wait you."   
Giles Corey nodded to James. "Give him my deposition, John."   
This deposition stated that Thomas Putnam told his daughter to cry out on his neighbors so that he could buy their land when they were dead, and then Giles was told to give the name of the man that witnessed it, and Giles refused. He had gotten his wife into jail by mentioning that she read books in secret; he refused to let this man hang also by his fault. They arrested Giles in contempt of the court, and then James stepped forward.   
"Forgive him, sir, for his old age. Peace, Giles, we'll prove it all now." He lifted up Mary's chin. "You cannot weep, Mary. Remember the angel, what he say to the boy. Hold to it, now; there is your rock." Mary quieted, and James took out a paper from inside his cloak, presenting it to Danforth. "This is Mary Warren's deposition. I—I would ask you remember, sir, while you read it, that until two week ago she were no different than the other children are today."   
He was speaking reasonably, restraining with force his anger, guilt, fear, and anxiety. "You saw her scream, she howled, she swore familiar spirits choked her; she even testified that Satan, in the form of women now in jail, tried to win her soul away, and then when she refused—"   
Frank interrupted. "We know all this."   
"Aye, sir." James licked his lips nervously. "She swears now that she never saw Satan; nor any spirit, vague or clear, that Satan may have sent to hurt her. And she declares her friends are lying now."  
The judges started. Flurried, they questioned Mary to the point of tears, including, in their requests, a wish to know whether she was in her natural mind and whether Mr. Proctor had threatened her for the deposition. Danforth finally frowned when they had finished; he sent the court clerk to bring in the other girls.   
"I will tell you this—you are either lying now, or you were lying in the court, and in either case you have committed perjury and you will go to jail for it. You cannot lightly say you lied, Mary. Do you know that?"   
Breaking into sobs, she answered. "I cannot lie no more. I am with God, I am with God."   
The other girls filed in, Lily at their head. Her hair was braided in a knot, coiled around her head and mostly hidden by the Puritan cap. Her eyes flashed around the court; they hardened as they fell on Mary and James. Deliberately, she averted her eyes and stared fixedly at Danforth.   
Danforth informed the girls of the reason for their presence. He ended by pointing out Lily.   
"Abigail Williams, rise."   
She did so, slowly.   
"Is there any truth in this?"   
"No, sir." She shook her head determinedly.   
Danforth sighed; turned to Lily. They questioned the girls on the presence of 'poppets' in the Proctor farmhouse, they asked about Abigail's motive if she could be lying, and they dwelt on the topic of dancing in the woods. Finally, they settled upon one point: that if she had been pretending to make her skin icy cold and to faint while accusing others of witchcraft, that she could do so now, and they asked her to.   
She couldn't, it was the atmosphere, and—"I cannot tell how, but I did. I—I heard the other girls screaming, and you, Your Honor, you seemed to believe them, and I—It were only sport in the beginning, sir, but then the whole world cried spirits, spirits, and I—I promise you, Mr. Danforth, I only thought I saw them but I did not."   
Parris, his upper lip turning wet, made an attempt at a laugh. "Surely your Excellency is not taken by this simple lie."   
Danforth took no notice of him; he turned to Lily, whose mind had been hurriedly flailing for an escape during the questioning. "Abigail, I bid you now search your heart and tell me this—and beware of it, child, to God every soul is precious and His vengeance is terrible on them that take life without cause. Is it possible, child, that the spirits you have seen are illusion only, some deception that may cross your mind when—"   
Indignant, Lily interrupted. "Why, this—this—is a base question, sir."   
"Child, I would have you consider it—"   
She snapped. Leaning on his desk, she cried out her lines. "I have been hurt, Mr. Danforth; I have seen my blood runnin' out! I have been near to murdered every day because I do my duty pointing out the Devil's people, and this is my reward? To be mistrusted, denied, questioned like a—"   
Danforth weakened. "Child, I do not mistrust you—"   
She stepped back, threatening openly. "Let _you _beware, Mr. Danforth. Think you to be so mighty that the power of Hell may not turn your wits? Beware of it! There is—"  
Her accusing stance changed; she turned her face to the ceiling, the rafters, the air above; she was truly frightened, and the audience was captured with the spell of the lying, sniveling girl only out for what she wanted, not caring for anyone else.   
Danforth half-stood. "What is it, child?"   
She managed to shake her head, clasping her arms around her as if she were shivering. "I—I know not. A wind, a cold wind, had come." Her eyes fell on Mary, who started to shake with fear.   
"Abby!"   
Mercy Lewis cried out from the bench, "Your Honor, I freeze!"   
James could hardly contain himself. "They're pretending!"   
Judge Hathorne rushed to Lily, feeling her hand and pulse. "She's cold, Your Honor; touch her!"  
With chattering teeth, Mercy pointed to Mary. "Mary, do you send this shadow on me?"   
Another girl, Susannah Walcott, yelped in some sort of agony. "I freeze, I freeze!"   
Mary sank to her knees. "Lord, save me!"   
Lily was visibly shivering. "It is a wind, a wind!"   
Hysterical, Mary stamped her foot. "Abby, don't do that!"   
Danforth regained his energy. "Mary Warren, do you witch her? I say to you, do you send your spirit out?"   
Her hysteria mounted to a sharp cry, and she tried to run out of the court; James caught her around the waist, and she almost fell; he caught her before she hit the floor.   
She was almost collapsing. "Let me go, Mr. Proctor, I cannot, I cannot—"   
Lily was pushed off of the bench by something; she raised her hands in prayer. "Oh, Heavenly Father, take away this shadow!"   
Without warning or hesitation, James leaped at her, and, grabbing her by the hair, pulled her to her feet.   
"How do you call Heaven? Whore! Whore!"   
She screamed in pain, and Danforth, Parris, and Hathorne were thrown into astonishment.   
"What are you about?"   
"Take your hands off her!"   
Herrick tore James away from her. "John!"   
Danforth was pulling his other arm. "Man! Man, what do you—"   
Breathless and in agony, he shouted out, "It is a wh ore!"   
Danforth was dumbfounded; he sat back down at his table. "You charge—"   
Lily screamed at him, a helpless, amazed, pleading scream. "Mr. Danforth, he is lying!"   
"Mark her!" James cried. "Now she'll suck a scream to stab me with, but—"   
"You will prove this," Danforth thundered. "This will not pass!"   
James was trembling now; his life was collapsing around him. "I have known her, sir. I have known her."   
"You—you are a lecher?" Danforth, and everyone in the courtroom for that matter, was amazed.   
Francis Nurse plucked at James' sleeve. "John, you cannot say such a—"   
Desperately, James cried, "Oh, Francis, I wish you had some evil in you that you might know me!" He turned to Danforth. "A man will not cast away his good name. You surely know that."   
"In—in what time? In what place?" He spoke from a dead throat; his good opinion of a prominent citizen was crushed.   
James' voice was about to break, and his shame was obvious as he answered. "In the proper place—where my beasts are bedded. On the last night of my joy, some eight months past. She used to serve me in my house, sir." He had to clamp his jaw to keep from weeping. "A man may think God sleeps, but God sees everything. I know it now. I beg you sir, I beg you—see her what she is. My wife, my dear good wife, took this girl soon after, sir, and put her out on the highroad. And being what she is, a lump of vanity, sir—" He was overcome. "Excellency, forgive me." He turned away for a moment, then whirled back, his voice strengthened. "She thinks to dance with me on my wife's grave! And well she might, for I thought of her softly. God help me, I lusted, and there is a promise in such sweat. But it is a whore's vengeance, and you must see it; I set myself entirely in your hands. I know you must see it now."   
Danforth blanched in horror, and he turned to Abigail. "You deny every scrap and tittle of this?"   
Lily stood up, glaring at the court, the judges, the crumpled mass of Mary Warren sobbing on the floor, and James standing, his head bowed in shame. "If I must answer that, I will leave and I will not come back again!"   
Danforth seemed unsteady about whom to believe, and James rejoined the proceedings. "I have made a bell of my honor! I have rung the doom of my good name—you will believe me, Mr. Danforth! My wife is innocent, except she knew a wh ore when she saw one!"   
Lily caught the glance Danforth gave her, and she stamped angrily. "What look do you give me? I'll not have such looks!" She turned and went for the door.   
Like a thundering mass of black suit, Danforth raised his hand. "You will remain where you are!" Herrick stepped into her path, and she came up short, fire in her eyes. "Mr. Parris, go into the court and bring Goodwife Proctor out."   
Elizabeth was duly presented; Lily and James were requested to turn their backs to her. Finally, Danforth asked her whether her husband was a lecher. Thinking only to save her husband's good name, and believing that Lily had told the court so, she answered in the negative. She was borne away, with James crying after her, "Elizabeth, I have confessed it!"   
With finality, Danforth brought his hand down upon the table. "She spoke nothing of lechery, and this man has lied!"   
"I believe him!" Hale cried. He pointed at Abigail. "This girl has always struck me false! She has—"   
He was interrupted by a weird, wild, bone-chilling cry from Lily, who was screaming at the ceiling. "You will not! Begone! Begone, I say!"   
Danforth's tone became gentle. "What is it, child?"   
Lily paid him no mind; transfixed with fear, she stared up at the ceiling. She was pointing at the rafters, and her terrified eyes and awed face were impressing everyone that watched with an odd sense of insanity, of something chilling running down their spine. The girls mimicked her, and everyone else in the courtroom followed their eyes.   
"Child! Girls! Why do you—"   
Mercy Lewis pointed. "It's on the beam! Behind the beam!"   
Danforth looked up. "Where?"   
Lily gulped. "Why--? Why do you come, yellow bird?"   
James scoffed. "Where's a bird? I see no bird."   
"My face? My face?" Lily was talking to something she saw, or pretended to see.   
"Mr. Hale—" James tried to intervene.   
"Be quiet!" Danforth spoke with finality.   
More quietly, James pulled Hale aside. "Do you see a bird?"   
"Be quiet!" Danforth thundered.   
Mary started to cry again. "Abby, you musn't!"   
The girls repeated her words. "Abby, you musn't!"   
Stamping her foot, Mary was raging in frustration. "I'm here, I'm here!"   
Transfixed, the girls stamped their feet, staring at the ceiling. "I'm here, I'm here!"   
Danforth was horrified. "Mary Warren! Draw back your spirit out of them!"   
Mary fought back tears. "Mr. Danforth!"   
The girls cut her off. "Mr. Danforth!"   
Pandemonium raged for some time, the girls mimicking Mary's speech, and finally, when Danforth accused Mary of putting her spirit into their bodies, she broke down. Sobbing, she regained the group of girls, pointing at James. "You're the Devil's man!"  
Clasping his hands together, Parris cried out "Praise God!"   
The girls repeated his statement, sinking to his knees, but in Lily's eyes were battling fear for herself and for James. "Praise God!"   
James was numbed; he could not move, so shocked was he. "Mary, how—"   
"I'll not hang with you!" Mary shrieked. "I love God, I love God!"   
Danforth turned to Mary, triumphant destruction in his fibers. "He bid you do the Devil's work?"  
Hysterically, Mary related a wonderfully improbable tale—according to her, James had come to her every night and made her sign the Devil's book. Hale and James tried fervently to protest, but Danforth was won over by Mary who was screaming shrilly as she crawled back over to Lily and the other girls.   
"No, I love God; I go your way no more. I love God, I bless God." Sobbing, she rushed to Lily, who, seemingly, out of infinite charity, drew Mary to her, and, helplessly, pleading, looked up at Danforth, who boomed out his accusation against James.   
"What say you, mister?"   
Breathless, his mind wild, driven beyond the point of endurance in hatred and desperation, James threw his head back and shouted jarringly, his voice carrying to every corner of the room. "I say—I say—God is dead!"   
Closing out Mary's sobbings and Hale's protestations, the court bore James away, bore him to the jail, and the curtain fell.   
The next act took place in the fall; in the courtroom. Parris was telling Danforth that Hale was begging the prisoners, among them Rebecca Nurse and John Proctor, to confess anything and save their lives. Danforth sensed something else.   
"Mr. Parris, be plain, what troubles you?"   
Parris sighed. "There is news, sir, that the court—the court must reckon with. My niece, sir, my niece—I believe she has vanished. I found my strongbox broke into—and thirty-one pound are gone, and my daughter tells me she have heard them speaking of ships last week. I am penniless!"   
Hale entered, telling Danforth he must pardon those that were still alive; they were refusing to 'confess' and lie, though it would save their lives. Danforth ordered that Proctor be confronted with Elizabeth, the sight of her might make him reconsider his stubbornness against lying. They brought him to her, and they unbound them so that they could talk freely.   
She sat down; she had to; three months pregnant. James smiled as he looked at her. "The child?"  
"It grows."   
"None—have yet confessed?"   
"There be many confessed. A hundred or more, they say. There be many."   
"Rebecca?" James queried.   
"Not Rebecca." The Ravenclaw shook her head. "She is one foot in heaven now; naught may hurt her more."   
"And Giles?"   
"Giles is dead," she intoned, keeping her tears back. "He would not answer aye or nay to the indictment; for if he denied the charge they'd hang him surely, and auction out his property. So he stand mute, and die Christian under the law. And so his sons will have his farm. It is the law, for he could not be condemned a wizard without he answer the indictment, aye or nay."   
"Then how did he die?"   
Gently, she replied. "They press him, John."   
"Press?"   
"Great stones they lay upon his chest until he plead aye or nay. They say he give them but two words. 'More weight,' he says. And died."   
He was numbed. "'More weight.'"   
There was a pause.   
"I have been thinking I would confess to them, Elizabeth. What say you? If I give them that?"   
She shook her head. "I cannot judge you, John."   
"What would you have me do?"   
"As you will, I would have it. I want you living, John. That's sure."   
He wrestled with his conscience a while, begged her to say that she forgave him, but she kept repeating that she could not judge him; he must do so. "Do what you will. But let none be your judge. There be no higher judge under Heaven than Proctor is! Forgive me, John, forgive me—I never knew such goodness in the world!" She turned away, crying.   
With a hollow sounding voice, James turned to Hathorne. "I want my life."   
Electrified, Hathorne jumped up. "You'll confess yourself?   
"I will have my life."   
Hathorne practically ran out of the courtroom, crying that Proctor would confess. He returned with the other judges, Rebecca Nurse and Martha Corey, for them to witness his confession so that they might also confess.   
"Say on, Mr. Proctor. Did you bind yourself to the Devil's service?"   
Rebecca gasped. "Why, John!"   
He turned his face away. "I did."   
They questioned him further, writing down his answers, but he never told them that he saw anyone with the Devil. In a sort of agony, he signed his name to the 'confession' the court had written down; it was a record of what he had just said. Then, in a fit of boundless anger, he snatched it up.   
Danforth held up his hand. "If you please, sir."   
"No."   
"Mr. Proctor, I must have—"   
"No, no! I have signed it. You have seen me. It is done! You have no need for this!"   
Parris intervened. "Proctor, the village must have proof that—"   
"Damn the village!" he cried. "I confess to God, and God has seen my name on this! It is enough! You are the high court, your word is good enough. Tell them I confessed myself; say Proctor broke his knees and wept like a woman; say what you will, but my name cannot—"   
Danforth rose. "It is the same, is it not? If I report it or you sign to it?"   
"No, it is not the same!" he shrieked. "What others say and what I sign to is not the same!"   
"Then explain to me," Danforth roared, "why you will not let—"   
"_Because it is my name!_" James cried, a cry of his whole soul. "Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of those that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul;_ leave me my name!_" His breast heaving, he picked up his confession and tore it in half, weeping madly.  
Parris cried out. "Proctor, Proctor!"   
"Man, you will hang!" Hale cried. "You cannot!"   
His eyes full of tears, he scornfully threw his words at them. "I can. And there's your first marvel, that I can. You have made your magic now, for now I do think that I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor. Not enough to weave a banner with, but white enough to keep it from such dogs!"   
In a burst of terror, Elizabeth fled to him, weeping against his hand.   
"Give them no tear, Elizabeth! Tears pleasure them! Show honor now, show a stony heart and sink them with it!" He raised her up and kissed her, while Danforth returned with the marshal.   
"Hang them high over the town! Who weeps for these, weeps for corruption!"   
Hale was still pleading with Elizabeth as James and the rest swept out. "Woman! It is pride, it is vanity. Be his helper!—What profit him to bleed? Shall the dust praise him? Shall the worms declare his truth? Go to him, take his shame away!"   
Supporting herself against a collapse, Elizabeth was gripping the bars of the window. "He have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him."   
Amid thunderous applause, as light poured onto her face, the curtain fell.   
They lined up for their curtain call quickly; the accusers and the accused were the first to take their bows. Then the judges came forward; then Mary Warren and Elizabeth Proctor. Both of them were blushing furiously as they cleared the path for John and Abigail, who, almost visibly reveling in the storms of clapping, came forward and bowed, twice. Lily could have resisted the second time, but James had pulled her down in a second bow.   
Quickly, they hurried offstage. They were to send a representative of each cast back on in several minutes so that the winning group could be chosen. Everyone was looking at Lora; after all, she was the stage manager. Instead, she held the pale white dress robes Mrs. Potter had brought out to Lily, who stared at them in astonishment.   
"What?"   
"Take them."   
"Lora, are you _nuts_?"   
"That was confirmed the day I was created. _Take them_," she insisted.  
Lily was nervously backing away. "Lora, no!"   
"You're the best one out of all of us, you go!"   
She couldn't say no after that, especially since she had backed into Frank Longbottom and James, and they were agreeing with Lora, threatening to dress her themselves if she didn't do it.   
Fifteen minutes later, her face scrubbed clean and her hair taken down from the knot it had been in; her feet in fitted white shoes, she was walking onstage with thirteen other girls and boys; women and men.   
The director and judges met them at center stage. Three golden cups sat there, all different in size, and with a dark purple velvet bag filled with something beside each one, the largest cup had everyone's attention. The director cleared his throat, effectively causing the theatre to fall silent.   
"I have here in my hand the winner of the first International Dramatic Tournament. In a few minutes I shall give it to you—but first, let us have a round hand of applause for every one of our participants!"   
They were tempted to cover their ears, such a loud, glass-shattering noise resounded from the walls.   
Finally, it dwindled down to a few polite coughs, and the director put an opera-glass to his eye.   
"In third place," he announced, "the cast and crew of the _Merchant of Venice_!"  
A shy lady with dark skin, robes, and hair tripped forward, blushing, at the amount of clapping coming to her ears, as she was presented with the smallest cup and the bag that went with it; it contained twenty-five Galleons.   
"The second place," he continued, "will be taken by the Greenwood Dramatists, performers of _Robin Hood; The Legend_!"  
A tall, blonde young man actively strode forward, somewhat disappointed but still pleased. He looked much more different than he had during the performance; without his green doublet and tunic, he looked more like the active eighteen-year-old he was, rather than the outlaw he had seemed. Mostly satisfied, he accepted his prize—one hundred Galleons—and retreated to downstage left, where the dark lady had already taken her place.   
The tension could have been cut with the tip of a pin as the director flourished his bit of parchment once more; all eyes were again on the glittering, shining, delicately sculptured piece of work on its small pedestal.   
"The first place—hold your breath—"   
Lily could have killed him.   
"The greatest honor for beginning actors, the winning of this tournament, has been chosen to be borne by—" He paused.   
Lily wasn't the only one that wanted to kill him.


	56. Severus meets Remus Actually, Severus m...

Yes, yes, I know, that last cliffhanger was evil, but since I'm posting this one only seconds after the last chapter, you really have no reason to kill me.  Do you?

Uh-oh.  Bad question.  Leave that one unanswered, please.

I'm still hitting myself about the head for slacking off about this story so much, but with luck, I should have LOTS posted tonight—I've got quite a bit written.  I go overboard on my writing stuff….anyway.  I hope you like the rest of the story.  

I keep forgetting about disclaimers, which is probably why I posted the one waaaaay back in I think Chapter 21 that went for all chapters.   Well, in case that one expired, here's another one:

DISCLAIMER:  I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING YOU RECOGNIZE FROM J.K. ROWLING'S WRITING.  YES, I DO HAVE QUOTES FROM BOOKS LIKE GONE WITH THE WIND IN HERE, BUT BOTH YOU AND I KNOW THAT YOU HAVE NOT DISCOVERED THAT I AM SECRETLY MAKING MONEY ON THIS STORY.  RIGHT?  RIGHT.  WELL, THEN.  YOU ALSO WILL NOT TELL ANYONE WHAT I HAVE JUST SAID, OTHERWISE I WILL BREAK YOUR BONES LIKE LAWN FURNITURE!!!!!!!

I got carried away.  Sorry.  ::grins sheepishly::  Still, here's another post…

"The actors and crew of Arthur Miller's award-winning _The Crucible_!"  
Instead of feeling suddenly happy and ecstatic, Lily felt as if her breath had been snatched out of her lungs. She had wished for this; she had hoped this would happen, but she had never _expected _it to, like the arrogant Robin Hood had expected to win the first prize.  
She almost had to be pushed forward, and when she did, it was almost in a dream that she heard the thundering, stone-felling applause and the excited shriekings and yells from backstage; the heavy cup that she almost dropped was unreal, and the velvet bag hanging from her arm was a figment of a dream.   
The next hour passed in a blaze. Her hand was almost numb from the continued shakings it received from the enthusiastic rich wizards and witches that lined up in front of the stage; she and the other thirteen had been handed a bouquet of so many roses they could hardly hold them all; the cup sat beside Lily on the stage, though the purple bag, the one that contained two thousand Galleons, was tucked away inside her robes, the weight of it was splitting the seams of her pocket.  
Orchids the color of which she had never dreamed of littered the bouquet that dangled about her wrist; black and purple and blue; a silvery color, golden, forest-green, and dark red. It seemed that magical orchids had many more varieties of color than Muggle ones did, but Lily didn't bother to dwell on that.   
When she finally returned backstage, her friends were all waiting for her with aeons of hugs and squeals, with excited snatchings of the flowers and tugging at the purple velvet bag that was hard to lift. They had already changed; there was a sort of dinner downstairs that everyone was attending; though it wasn't really a dinner; it was more of a small buffet, with cookies, chocolates, and punch on tables.   
They had already changed into dress robes that they had been surprised with; Mrs. Doylen and Mrs. Potter, after checking their costume measurements, had gone out and ordered dress robes for them all. They were all different colored, too—Eva's were light blue; Lora's a light slivery grey, matching her eyes. Lily had been given a choice between a pearly white, similar to the ones she already wore, but more elegant, and a deep purple; she spun around several times and picked the one she landed in front of; the dark ones had been slipped on and a magnificent purple orchid pinned to them by the time they joined the throng downstairs.   
She tried to keep to the wall as much as possible; it was harder than would be expected, since there were so many people there that were trying to wring her wrist to pieces. Managing to slip behind a table, she bumped into someone in a twilight-blue shade of robes. Hurriedly, she whirled around, apologies on the tip of her tongue.   
"Hey, hey, it's all right!"   
James stood in front of her, grinning broadly, a cup of punch in one hand and several chocolates stamped with the theatre's crest placed on a napkin in the other hand. He held them out to her.   
"Have some. There're plenty."   
She smiled as she accepted one. "Thank you. You--you did wonderfully."   
"Not as good as you did."   
Lily dropped her head somewhat shamefacedly. "Thank you."   
He looked her up and down. "You look nice."   
"You, too." He did, too. His hair was, for once, halfway behaving, and although one piece insisted on covering one of his eyes, he looked rather handsome.  
They returned to Hogwarts that night; they were piled onto the globe, and, as they were sleeping in their compartments, it took off; they left it in the morning when they woke up. It wasn't nearly as nice for baths or changing clothes, since the beds with the shields down were so cramped, but they had to; an icy blizzard was swirling outside, and they couldn't simply slip into shoes and a coat.   
They were all yawning dreadfully by the time the adults routed them out of bed and into the Great Hall for breakfast, and Sirius and James had to be forcefully prevented from decorating Lora's hair with little bits of crumbled bacon, milk, and syrup; she hadn't even filled her plate, as she was using it as a pillow. As it was, though, she had to be content with a smudge of strawberry juice on her nose she didn't notice till that night when she was washing her face.

Christmas was looming up quickly. As a special surprise, the Doylens and the Potters had bought everyone that had participated, even Severus, though he really hadn't, a ring with the theatre's crest and motto on them, all surrounding a stone of that particular person's dress robes that evening. The rings were nicely picked out; the boys had no objections to wearing them, and neither did the girls. Lily's stone was a deep amethyst, and she was amusing herself all morning by catching the firelight in it and reflecting the light into her eyes.   
She received several presents; loads of candy from Honeydukes besides several other things—and a letter from her father.   
  
_Lily, dear.__   
  
This may be a shock to you; on the other hand, it may not. My company is slowly going bankrupt; it's due to a mistake one of my clerks made, and it had to do with quite a bit of property going to the wrong owner. I'm telling you this because I might have to take you out of Hogwarts; it's not one of the cheapest schools to send you to, and I'm sure you don't need to study any more. You're my smart sixth year, and you'll be fully prepared for everything the magical world faces—though I'd prefer it, really, if you married sensibly in our class and settled down, using magic only for things like getting dressed. Don't worry, I'm not asking you to make a drastic change. I'm just telling you that I don't approve of magic much, and I wish, on my behalf, that you would help me at home.   
  
--Dad _  
  
Lily finished this with a rather archedly raised eyebrow, the only significant part of her face that showed her anger. Her father was, quite literally, asking her to forsake something she was, simply because an arrogant, single-minded Muggle like himself never knew what she could become. In a white-hot fury, in an anger that the small letter hardly deserved, she flung herself at a desk and penned a hurried answer.  
  
_Mr. Evans,   
  
I am not giving up a part of myself for the sake of what you call your morals. If you knew me at all, you would know better than to ask. You are currently not paying for my school expenses; the amount is drawn out of my account at Gringotts. That was a flimsy excuse. I do not have any desire to marry; I do not have the slightest inclination towards being what you call 'sensible'. I am not sensible; I am headstrong, stubborn, often cruel, and flighty when not heartless. I have helped you at home more than some say I should, and now you ask me to do this. I point-blank refuse.   
  
--Lily _  
  
She tied it to Alisande's leg; the aging owl flew off into the pale blue sky quickly, and Lily was angrily turning away from the window when, again, she bumped face-first into James.  
"You again?"   
He ignored her rude outburst. "That wasn't exactly a father-daughter letter, was it?"   
Lily snorted, not even bothering to make a comment about eavesdroppers. "I don't care. I hate him. I hope I never see him or his race again!"   
"Whoa!" Frowning, he placed two hands on her shaking shoulders. "You don't mean that. No—you don't," he added, as he caught her glare, this time directed towards him. "You're frustrated—that's all."   
James pushed her into an armchair. "Be sensible, for once, and listen to me. He's your _father_!"   
"_Was_ my father."  
He tried to talk to her about that through the whole day; he even waved Sirius away, who was vigorously pointing to the dwindling twilight outside and then to Remus. At the end of the day, she was still stubbornly shooting jabbed remarks about her family every which way she went, in other words, at James, and he was hearing a whole lot about the time in fourth year after her mother had died that he never wanted to; for instance, the time that he couldn't aim right when he threw up; he had managed to do so on his pillow, and then he had flopped right into bed.   
James was seriously thinking about earplugs—but then a sliver of moonlight pierced the window and fell onto her face; he remembered his friend.   
James jumped up. "I've got to go. It's Remus."   
"It's the full moon—what about him?"   
"I've _got to leave_. Lily, please! Just—just leave off right here."  
"Okay. Good. I need to finish another letter to my former father that I never started."   
"Argh!" He gripped his hair in his hands, then grabbed her wrist. "You're coming with me—but you're staying where I tell you to."   
Without waiting for an answer, he sprinted outside, dashing across the lawns, and stopping just in front of the Whomping Willow. There, he turned to her.   
"Look, wait here for me. I'll be back in a second."   
She folded her arms and glared at him, and he knew better than to try to stop her, but he still made a last-ditch attempt.   
"Lily Evans, it's dangerous down there—there's a _werewolf _in there—"  
"Then why are you going?"   
This was bringing nothing. James simply groaned, knowing that he never should have left the common room. Too late now, he thought grimly, she could figure out how to get to the Shrieking Shack by herself. Picking up a long sick, he poked a knot in the trunk of the Whomping Willow with it, and the tree instantly froze. Both of them vanished into a hole at the bottom of the willow, James wishing he'd never come in the first place; he'd have to do a load of protecting her by keeping Remus away, and he knew that she'd find out about his Animagi form.   
Of course, he didn't know that she already knew about it.   
He also didn't know about a future complication that was sneaking across the lawns in the form of a batlike black cloak.   
As she let herself be pulled down the passageway, she whisked her wrist free of his grasp and followed closely. To herself, she asked why she was doing this. The answer came quickly. She was sick of the secret she had to keep from them, from the lies she had had to tell them if they ever started to find out that she knew. And—and—she never usually had hunches. It was only that evening that she had had one. Something connected between the way Sirius' eyes flickered when he pointed towards Remus, and something in the way Severus was avoiding every single student, going his own way more than usual.   
The feeling was something else she would be able to cast aside easily; it was only this moment that she had grasped, stupidly or wisely, for doing it. Grimly, she thought, probably stupidly, but she didn't have much time to think anything else. Several growls came from somewhere above her, along with the noise of ripping cloth. James flung an arm out to stop her; he took her shoulders in his hands.   
"Lily, I know I can't stop you, but I'm trying to appeal to your common sense. _Please _go outside and wait for me. I'm begging you, with everything I know of. _Please._"  
Lily cast one look at his eyes; she shouldn't have. Inside her, something gave way, and she nodded limply.   
"I don't want to. But all right, then. You—you're sure you'll be all right?"   
"Positive." His voice was agitated, and he fairly pushed her back down the passageway. "Now _go!_"  
Unwillingly, she flitted into the shadows, and, with a sigh of relief, James let himself into the Shrieking Shack, where he found Sirius and Remus wrestling for something; the shaggy black dog was holding a clingy grey rat gently in his mouth, and the werewolf was trying to snatch it; its head twisted in an odd way underneath Sirius' paw. James grinned to himself as he transformed into his own Animagi form and galloped towards the two, knocking the rat out of Sirius' mouth.   
Suddenly, out of nowhere, the door was flung open with a bang. Lily, eyes wild and breathless, stood in the opening, taking in the surroundings, and not a bit surprised. James, on his part, was.   
He jumped up, and, running over to her, tried to butt her in the stomach with his antlers, trying desperately to get her out of there. Frightened of something, she simply pushed them out of the way.   
"James, not right now! I—come with me!" She vanished down the corridor, and, baffled and dismayed himself, James transformed and followed her. _What had happened—and how did she know his Animagi form?  
_ On her part, when Lily had been shoved down the corridor, she had, obediently, followed the earthy hallway to the exit underneath the Whomping Willow. But when she was within ten feet of it, she drew back. Someone was dropping down—had pushed the grass aside, and had found the entrance. He had fallen lightly on the floor, and was looking around curiously. Rather slowly, he was advancing, looking about him as if he expected the tunnel to crash on him any minute.   
Panting, Lily had recognized him—no one else she knew had that silhouette. Severus knew how to get in here—and from what she could guess, Sirius had told him, hoping that he would come to a confrontation with Remus. Immediately, she recognized that she could do nothing—her only hope was to get one of the boys; she was without her wand, and they were stronger than she; it was highly unlikely that Severus would allow himself to be persuaded back. He hated James and Sirius more than anything, and he would do anything to find out something incriminating about them.   
Lily did a quick about-face and headed for the Shrieking Shack, which was full of romping bangs and barks. With utter disregard for any sort of danger she might be facing, she flung open the door, face to face with a large, black dog, a pale grey stag, and a shaded werewolf.   
When James had followed her outside and heard Sirius bolt the door behind him as Remus threw himself at it, he could start to get angry, and he did.   
"_What in blazes do you think you're doing?"_  
"Not now," she gasped, clutching her side—it was quite a run from Hogwarts to Hogsmeade. "Not now. James—Severus—Snape, he's coming up the corridor—someone told him how to get in here—he's going to see Remus—and you, and—and—" She couldn't go on, but she knew she didn't have to. James had understood.   
"I'll go and try to pull him back. You try to tell Sirius or Peter—get some help—wait, don't!"   
But she had already started for the door.   
"Are you crazy? You'll be killed!"   
She flashed a grin at him. "If you don't learn to live with danger, you won't learn to live at all."   
He didn't move, and she waved him towards the other end of the tunnel. "_Go!_"  
"Right, right," James murmered to himself, and, with that, he set off, running towards the intruder, dashing as fast as he could, not caring about the branches and rocks that scratched him on the head and arms, that tripped him every so often.   
Lily turned around after she saw him vanish into the gloom. Without hesitating, she turned for the muffled bangs for the second time, and opened up the door, sliding back the bold from the outside; a trick she had learned some years ago. She eased the door open, and found Sirius and Remus wrestling in earnest; Peter was cowering, in his rat form, in a corner.   
Eyes wild, Sirius looked up and growled at her, as much as to say, "Get out!" She ignored that, and, stepping forward, she tried to gain his attention.   
"Sirius, Severus' coming down here! You've got to do something with Remus—James needs your help!"   
The dog let out something rather near a whine, but he dug his teeth farther into the scruff of Remus' neck, trying to make him go limp for a few seconds. On the contrary, however, it merely enraged him, and he whipped out a paw that had been pinned underneath him, slinging it towards Sirius' head. The dog gave a short whimper, then tried to stand up, but it was rather late; the werewolf was eyeing the now empty doorway; Lily had vanished down the corridor.   
Sirius groaned, mentally hitting himself for doing something this idiotic as telling Snape how to get in—sure, he'd wanted him to die, and he still wanted him to!—but this was pulling Lily into it, too…and dangerously! Suddenly gaining strength, he sprinted after Remus, who was a second ahead of him. For five minutes they raced each other, almost flank to flank, jumping over each other in the narrow tunnel, one trying to stop the other, the other trying to get by. But the werewolf was more ferocious than Sirius was, even in his dog-form, and they soon came in sight of three people, two of which lost their calm, cool manner and started shoving the third one back.   
James had tried simply talking to Snape; he was thankful he had been in that play; he needed to know how to hide fear under a mask of collectiveness. Still, he knew, something showed through, and at a critical moment, when Snape was about to push by him, Lily showed up.   
For once, James breathed a sort of thank you for her timing and her acting. She convincingly pulled off a rather bored, somewhat embarrassed attitude; James knew what she was pretending to cover up, and that it incriminated him, but _anything _was better than the truth, now. He was only thankful Bertha Jorkins had left last year, what with the scandal she had burrowed up concerning that Hufflepuff, Florence Wilkins…  
But he had no time to think of that. Eyes wide, Lily was trying to lead Snape back towards Hogwarts, and, just as he was about to deliver a cutting speech towards both of them and return by himself, Remus broke out, along with Sirius.   
At that, both James and Lily panicked; James kept his head a bit more than she did, and he yelled at her,   
"Go get some help!"   
"But they'll find out—"   
"Just _go!_"  
With a last glance, she disappeared towards the castle, and James was madly pulling Snape towards the exit underneath the Whomping Willow; he was frozen with fright and astonishment; also with a sort of excitement at finding out that one of his enemies was a werewolf.   
James finally managed to gain a distance of fifteen feet between him and the growling, snapping teeth of the werewolf; Sirius was clearly exhausting himself terribly; he couldn't hold him back much longer.   
Terrified, James yelled towards Snape, "Just go! You can blackmail us in the morning, if we're still alive!"   
It wasn't that comment that drove Severus back outside; it was the fear of the werewolf, who was meanwhile clawing two feet away from James; foot. In the nick of time, James swung himself outside, and, pulling Severus with him, leaped behind the Whomping Willow barely a millisecond after he froze it.   
None too soon. The instant they had vanished from sight, Remus clawed his way to the surface. It was all Sirius could do to guide him, snapping at Remus, towards the Forbidden Forest, where Sirius followed him, collapsing behind a tree and remaining there until he could see Lily return with Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey, which she did almost as soon as he had vanished.

  The nurse was almost frighteningly businesslike; she quietly conjured stretchers for the three of them; James, Lily, and Severus, though James was the only one who didn't have the energy to protest against them.   
Dumbledore was gazing piercingly at them, and they knew they'd better have a good explanation of what they were doing near a werewolf. However, Dumbledore let the questions wait until they were seated in beds, propped up against mounds of pillows, and drinking a potion Madam Pomfrey had labeled_ Pepperup_.  
Lily didn't know exactly what it was, but she found she was thankful for it. In the excitement, she hadn't paid any attention to the fact that the snow on the ground was almost frozen solid; the time they had spent in the tunnel and outside had given them a blueish tint to their faces and limbs, and the Pepperup Potion sent hot steam rushing through their bodies, finally welling out of their ears.   
Sirius entered the room about ten minutes after they were settled, and he, on his part, was quickly whisked into bed. There was no denying that he was worse off than either of the other three; deep scratches were all over his body; they had torn his robes to shreds.   
Dumbledore, more serious than many had seen him, seated himself on a chair that the nurse provided. His eyes were stern.   
"I trust I do not have to ask you to explain yourselves."   
There was a moment of silence; they were racking their brains furiously.   
Lily cast a look around, and saw that neither of the boys would come up with a feasible tale. She quickly opened her mouth.   
"Professor--it was my fault."   
There was no denying that this was unexpected, and there was also no denying that a further explanation was expected. She continued.   
"I didn't know where Remus went every month, and I thought he might be in some sort of trouble. I followed him this evening, and I suppose James and Sirius must have seen me going into the Whomping Willow. I shouldn't have--but I was worried about him--he's my friend, Professor."   
She took a deep breath, along with the stares of her listeners, and went on.   
"I think Severus must have thought something odd was going on, and he tried to go in there after me, and he thought something was up, because James and I were trying to push him back out--and then we saw Remus coming around the corner, and James yelled for me to get help. I don't know what happened there until we came back." Exhausted, she leaned her head back against the pillows.   
Severus had his two cents to put into the pie, though. "There was a large black dog there, fighting with the werewolf."   
James knew the answer to this. "Oh--you mean--" He was struggling for a name, and his eyes lit on Sirius--"you mean Blacky--he's a stray from the village. I've seen him there during visits, and he seems to like me. I suppose that's why he came to help us."   
Severus was halfway satisfied, as wasn't Dumbledore.   
"I must ask you to tell me anything else that you might know--anything else that has happened. This may be more serious than you realize."   
"It is." Severus drew everyone's attention towards himself. "Black tried to murder me."   
The headmaster rose to his feet, eyes hard and robes swaying. "Mr. Snape, _explain yourself!_"  
Severus nodded. "With pleasure. Black was the one that told me that if I poked a knot on the Whomping Willow, I would be able to get to the place that I had seen Potter and Lily sneaking off to. He said _nothing _about a werewolf!"  
Dumbledore looked around, at the frightened faces of the Gryffindors and the angry countenance of Severus, who was sitting straight up, arms folded.   
"I will let you rest for this night, but be assured, you will explain tomorrow! I will expect you in my office at twelve o'clock noon exactly; I expect Madam Pomfrey to release you tomorrow morning. And--Mr. Snape, it is completely understood that you are not to reveal anything that you have discovered tonight. I need not add that any revelation on your part would mean expulsion."   
Severus didn't look too pleased.   
"I bid you all a good night--what there is of it."   
With a swaying of his cloak, he had vanished into the open doorway; another soft click, and the door had shut.   
Madam Pomfrey was bustling over with bowls of steaming soup, and, as they forced it down their throats, they realized the danger of expulsion they were facing, especially Sirius and James.   
The next morning, they were met at the door of the hospital wing by Peter, who had scurried out of the Shrieking Shack a half hour after he had heard everything quiet down outside. He had made his way to Gryffindor Tower, spent the night in front of the fire, and had dashed to the hospital wing first thing that morning, not even bothering to slip into fresh robes.   
James, Sirius, Peter, and Lily were sitting apart from everyone else at the table; they were hardly eating, though they had missed out on the Christmas feast that had been held the night before. Frantically, they were comparing ideas and cooking up a tale that Dumbledore would be satisfied with and that Severus couldn't pick apart, no matter how much he wanted to.   
They could hardly taste their food; it felt like soggy sawdust as they pushed about two bites of a biscuit each into their mouths.   
Soon, the golden plates cleared, and they had to leave the Great Hall. They took refuge in the kitchens; they knew they'd be swamped in the Gryffindor common room, and the grounds were open to anyone that cared to eavesdrop, as Lily pointed out. Besides, the house-elves were only too happy to conceal them from intruders, as they were more than familiar with James and Sirius.   
At eleven-thirty, they were as prepared as they could be, and they were making their way to Dumbledore's office. At a quarter till twelve, they were congregating outside, trying to keep their voices down; Severus was curiously eyeing them.   
To make it easier for them on some points, Lily had told them how long she had known about their Animagi transformations, and the boys were frankly flabbergasted; they had thought that they had been exceptionally secretive and inconspicuous. Still, it was a relief not to have to tell her the entire story, which they would have had to, seeing that she already knew something about it; the way she had called the stag 'James' definitely indicated that.   
Twelve o'clock sounded, and Professor McGonagall stepped out from the headmaster's office. She waved them inside, and, single file, they mounted the spiraling staircase, hearts in their mouths.   
They trooped into Dumbledore's office, and, eyes wide, they sank into seats that were pointed out to them. Professor McGonagall left the room, and they were left alone with Professor Dumbledore, who was quizzically letting his blue eyes flash over them from behind his desk.   
"I must ask you if you have anything to say for yourselves."   
The room remained silent, except for the three notes of phoenix song that were echoing from a cage near the desk.   
"You have, all of you, been exceedingly foolish. Miss Evans, I would have expected better of you than to go looking for danger. Mr. Potter, Mr. Black, and Mr. Pettigrew, all three of you were exceedingly at fault for at least one of you not going for a teacher. Mr. Snape-" His eyes rested on the rather sullen figure with the flowing cloak draped around the chair. "Mr. Snape-you deliberately pried into business not your own, and you could have been killed, and your schoolmates as well, simply as a result of your actions. I am-" He paused.   
Taking his half-moon glasses off, he wiped them carefully on his sleeve, replaced them, then resumed his lecture.   
"I am deeply disappointed. I would have expected better of five sixth years. As it is, though-"   
Here he paused again, letting blue orbs flicker over each moderately terrified form. He was starting to make them twitch anxiously before he spoke again.   
"I believe you five have undergone enough fright last night; you were attacked by a werewolf, after all, and have escaped practically unscathed. As far as I can see, nothing you have done was breaking many school rules, and you-" he looked at James-"did show true Gryffindor bravery when you pulled Mr. Snape away, though you could have left. I award Gryffindor House twenty points, and I trust you shall do better in future."   
The Gryffindors were staring at him as though they had just stuck each finger in a light socket and a bulb in their mouths. They had just escaped expulsion-that is, Sirius, James, and Peter-and they were being _awarded _points?  
They snapped back to reality at Severus' laughter and Dumbledore's chuckle.   
"You may be dismissed. Merry Christmas to you all."   
They stood up and were about to file out of the door, when the headmaster held Severus back.   
"Mr. Snape-a word, if you please."   
They never knew what happened behind the closed door, but Severus emerged from behind the gargoyle with a grim, white look on his face; his lips were stretched into thin lines. Lily tried to talk to him, but he brushed her aside impatiently and hardly spoke to her for the rest of the holidays; he preferred to practice several curses and whisper secretly with his Slytherin friends; ones that Lily had once been friendly with, but now she wasn't that close to: people whose parents Lily had seen with Tom; and sometimes they themselves-Avery, Nott, Macnair, Rosier, Goyle…   
Something strange had happened after the play. Lying came more easily to Lily than ever before, and it took next to no time for her to come up with a convincing explanation for things. Before it, her wits would have been so scattered after the incident with Remus that she wouldn't have had the time to think up a story that Dumbledore himself would accept, but now the pretense of everything started to seep into her, and she was feeling more strangely detached from things, as if the world around her was in such a lower class than she was that she found lying to it almost an obligation.   
Something else had happened during the Crucible and the night of December 25th. She and James and Sirius were starting to become incredibly closely knit; they were almost inseparable, and they were spending more time in the pub of the Three Broomsticks or the common room than ever before, talking about things.   
She was starting to trust James with the secret about the Alendoren Cove again. Lily told him what Tom had suspected and what she had feared and thought for a while; she was relieved to see the utter astonishment on his face when he heard her say what had been on her mind. She was opening up more; her sarcastic manner started to drop, and he had found her in her dormitory one day, clutching an old book of her mother's and crying as if her heart would break, something she hadn't done in a long while.   
School had started, and January was bringing flurries of laughter and spasm of snowball fights to the students. Light, pale pearl clouds were floating in the ceiling of the Great Hall, and the sun shone brightly on the frozen grounds.   
One day, Lily was sitting in her dormitory, brushing her hair, holding her inky quill between her teeth, and flipping pages of _An Advanced Guide to Transfiguration_ when the door opened. Lily looked up, then, finding only Serena there, turned back to her book. It was only when Serena started speaking to her that she spit the quill and several loose strands of hair out of her mouth.  
"So, you and James are getting along nicely, are you?"   
Lily smiled. "Yes."   
"Feeling rather special after the play, aren't you?"   
"Moderately." Her good mood was vanishing.   
"I'll have you know that you almost didn't win that award." Rather full of herself, Serena tossed her hair over her shoulder and waited for Lily's response.   
"I am deeply touched. You asked your father to turn the judges against us, I imagine?"   
Serena hadn't really expected this. "Well-no-I didn't-"   
"Liar," Lily stated smoothly. "You didn't seem to like the fact that you thought we were going to win, so enough said. You're rather a poor opponent."   
The girl started to boil. "I just didn't want you getting over yourself! You think you're so much better than everyone else here, simply because of your grades and that pointless acting award! I'm simply trying to better humanity!"   
That was too much for Lily. She burst out in a fit of snorts and half-giggles.   
That night, when she came down to dinner, she noticed James' face being somewhat more preoccupied than usual. He kept staring off into his glass of pumpkin juice, and he was completely ignoring Peter's crawling underneath the table, transforming, and skittering up the robes of quite a few of the students.   
"James?" She knocked on the glass to get his attention.   
"What?" He looked up.   
"You seem elsewhere."   
He smiled. "Oh-I was just thinking."   
Lily laughed. "Am I going mad, or did the word 'think' escape your lips? You are not hired for your brains, you hypertonic landmass!"   
He grinned, too. "You've been reading _The Princess Bride_ one too many times."  
"Well, if I like it, what's it to you?"   
"I've got to hear you quote it!"   
She laughed. "You and the rest of Gryffindor Tower."   
Remus had recovered wonderfully from the werewolf incident; he was quite shaken for about two weeks afterwards, but then he relapsed into his old, carefree, happy-go-lucky self. For some reason, the character that came to Lily's mind whenever she saw him was Winnie-the-Pooh; he was usually happy, and his hair was the golden brown she imagined the teddy bear's coat to be.

    The summer, in contrast to the whirling ice of the winter, promised to be beautiful. In February, just in time for the second Gryffindor Quidditch match, the sky was blazing a silky blue, with puffs of white cotton pretending to be clouds scattered across its wide expanse. It was nice and warm; perfect for the match; Gryffindor against Ravenclaw. Lily noticed that the team was practicing harder than it had been when they were facing Hufflepuff, and, secretly, she hoped they'd lose; their ego was big enough as it was, without having another Quidditch win to add to it.   
The morning of the match, the sky dawned with pale pinks and yellows, covering the grounds in light. The Great Hall was filled with a warm tint and lots of sunbeams; everyone was in a good mood that day.   
They were all looking forward to the match, and the students were already attired in their red and gold or blue and bronze trappings.   
When they trooped outside onto the field, the excited chatter woke up every single bird that was roosting near the edge of the Forbidden Forest, and they started to chirp and squawk loudly, complementing the Hogwarts students nicely.   
Lily found a seat in between Lora and Sirius; they were fairly high up, and Lily was in a position to pickpocket Sirius' binoculars. Lora was threatening to knock her off of her feet; she was bouncing up and down so actively and swinging her arms with an utter disregard for other people's body parts, and Sirius was tapping his foot and humming to something from the Wizarding Wireless Network. It was only when Madam Hooch, the referee, and the teams met on the field, that her seatmates stopped the incessant moving around.   
They had some new team members that Lily hadn't kept up with; though James, Rebecca Oxley, and Nigel Patil were still on the team, along with Miranda and Anya MacGregor and John.   
A Ravenclaw fifth year was doing the commentating; it was her second time doing it, and she was no less eager for the match than Lora was; actually, she was probably more so; she had had lots of syrup poured over her pancakes at breakfast, and she was, to say the least, extremely biased when it came to Quidditch matches. She pulled the magical microphone close to her mouth and cleared her throat.   
"And captains Patil and Howard shake hands-whistle blows, aaaand-they're off! Quaffle goes to James Potter of Gryffindor-he's flying up the field-ugh, intercepted by Lorenor from the Ravenclaw end-Quaffle goes to Lorenor-I hate hard names-Lorenor-Flack-aaand-back to Lorenor-no, Shaw intercepts it. Miranda Shaw from Gryffindor flying up the field-very nice dodge around that Bludger there-careful, that's a Beater in front of you-take her teeth out, Pete; it's only a minor penalty-and the Quaffle goes to Potter-Oxley-Potter-Shaw-aaand-Shaw scores! Ten to zero for Gryffindor!"   
Miranda, grinning widely, was making several bows at the stadium from her broom before the game started again.   
"The Quaffle goes to Flack-no, Potter. James Potter of Gryffindor flying up the field-does several nice loop-dee-loops around Lorenor and that Bludger-come on, this is not a carousel! Quaffle to Shaw-Oxley-Shaw-Oxley-Shaw-make up your mind already! Okay; Shaw streaking up towards wrong goalposts…she aims-and she throws to Potter, who doesn't go to his own goalposts like a sensible person; he aims, aaaand-he scores! Never mind; those were the right goalposts-my mistake, Professor, my mistake."   
Professor McGonagall, as usual, was superintending the commentator. Lily was surprised that a teacher hadn't taken over that post, but then again, it was more fun this way.   
The match went on in that vein for a while; thirty minutes later, Anya was no nearer to spotting the Snitch, and the score was eighty to sixty for Gryffindor.   
"Chaser Slycke of Ravenclaw in possession of the Quaffle; heading for the goals-he throws to Lorenor-back to Slycke-and to Flack-Flack scores!-no, no, he doesn't-Patil intercepted that one. All right; Patil wheezing like a plucked chicken-serves you right for catching it with your stomach-Quaffle to Potter-Oxley-Potter-who does a funny ballet twirl in order to avoid being hit by a Bludger-can't he just let it hit him?--Potter scores!-and he got hit in the back with a very well-aimed Bludger-it was, Professor! Eurgh, that must have hurt-anyway, he's not too badly hurt. Shame. And the match goes on…it goes on into the sunset…actually, the noon scorcher-"   
"Would you tell us a bit about the match, Ludren?"   
"Oh, right, right-sure, Professor. Score is ninety to sixty for Gryffindor…"   
As the sun rose higher into the sky, the game went on. Soon the score was one hundred eighty to two hundred for Gryffindor, and the game started to speed up.   
"Gryffindor Beater Winters just hit a nasty one at Slycke-hit him in the arm-isn't that a foul? Can we call a time-out and make it one? Eh, well…Potter heading up the field there…dodging another Bludger-OUCH-that must have hurt; hit in the back of the head by the other one-hope it smashed his skull-but he's still on the broom, still hurtling towards the goals-and he scores," the announcer stated in a rather dead voice. "Two hundred and ten to one hundred and eighty for Gryffindor. Potter's got a knack for attracting Bludgers. Does anyone know if there are bits of metal in those things? Because if so, I think someone attached a magnet to Potter; not that I'm complaining, but-"   
"LUDREN!"   
"Well, if it's true, then-oh, fine. Chaser MacGregor for Gryffindor heading up the field towards the Slytherin goalposts-why she's doing that, I can't imagine-the Quaffle isn't there-oh, hang on a minute!"   
The magical microphone went silent for a minute as Ludren puzzled over the tactics of the Chaser that wasn't really a Chaser.   
"Wait-change of plans! _Seeker _MacGregor going into a dive there-come on, Conven, follow her! Get her; knock her off her broom-ah, too late."  
Every single Gryffindor leapt to his or her feet, applauding madly, screaming and shouting and hugging each other as Anya sank to the ground, engulfed by her teammates, and holding aloft the ting fluttering gilded walnut in her left fist.   
"Gryffindor wins. Three hundred and sixty to one hundred and eighty. Whee." The commentator's voice was two-dimensional by now, but it could hardly be heard over the ecstatic cries of the Gryffindors, who were piling onto the field and overwhelming the team with strangling hugs. It paid to be a Quidditch player, James thought, though it wasn't the most desirable thing to be constantly hit with Bludgers.   
That evening, everyone was contentedly stuffing themselves with éclairs, pumpkin juice, custards, and pastries in the common room, which was littered with plates, glasses, napkins, and food platters. Sirius and Remus had ripped a large Gryffindor banner into strips, and they had hung them as streamers from the ceiling. Two others were intact, and they were waving above the stairs going to each side of the dormitories.   
Lily fought her way over to James. "You did wonderfully."   
He grinned. "Thanks."   
Setting her glass of pumpkin juice down on the table, she let herself plop down onto a free stool, of which there weren't many. "Did the Bludgers hurt badly?"   
"Nah." He waved his hand as if to signify that it was nothing, but her sharp eyes saw him wince slightly. "I don't get hurt!"   
Lily didn't bother to try and countermand that statement; both of them knew what she could say. He was secretly thankful that she didn't.   
"So, you staying here over Easter?"   
"I think so," Lily smiled. "I couldn't return to my father-and I don't much want to miss out on the opportunity of studying in the library."   
He let out a great hoot. "You wouldn't want to miss out on the opportunity?"   
She blushed. "It is!"   
Just then, Serena came over, one hand holding a napkin with several pastries on it. "James-I think I got the last ones." She let herself drop gracefully onto the floor next to him.   
Sirius grinned. "Up for another raid, Prongs?   
He hesitated; looked up at Serena. "I think-no, I guess I'll stay here."   
His friend raised his eyebrows. "Sorry! I'll just evaporate, shall I?"   
"Padfoot, don't take it that way! I'd just rather not-I'll explain later."   
Lily felt an odd little jerk somewhere in the area of her left lung, and she frowned. "Sirius, I'll help carry."   
They exited the common room without attracting too much attention, which was a good thing. It wouldn't have been pleasant if the entire Gryffindor House found out how to get into the kitchens-invariably, someone would notice, and the entrance would be changed or moved altogether, besides losing quite a few House points.   
They were halfway to the kitchen before either of them spoke.   
"Lily, you're oddly quiet. You weren't in the common room; you were actually rather talkative. What's wrong?"   
She laughed. "Nothing."   
He wasn't fooled. "Is it because of Serena?"   
"Oh,--_you!_" Lily hit him lightly on the arm. "I hate clairvoyant people. Yes, it is. Satisfied?"  
"For the present. Come on, perk up. The house-elves don't like to see unhappy students. Take it from me; they'll attack you with the evilest mixture of what they call medicine they can brew up." He made a face.   
"Really?" She laughed. "Judging by the food they turn out at dinner and feasts, I'd expect something else!"   
"Never judge medicine by its maker," Sirius stated darkly.   
They returned to the common room minutes later, with their arms piled full of food and each arm hung with pitchers of pumpkin juice. Immediately, they were relieved of everything by the Gryffindors, and they were able to find a seat as the students swarmed around the food.   
Just as Lily sank into an armchair and curled up, a tapping at the window made her look up sharply. One of the school barn owls was pecking at it. Sighing, she made her way over to the window, flung it open, and frowned in surprise as it dropped a letter into her hands. Then, without waiting for a response, it took off again, in the direction of the Owlery.   
Lily unfolded the envelope and the note inside. Sitting down on the window ledge, she read:   
  
_Lily,   
  
I want to talk to you and tell you something. I haven't spoken to you since Christmas, and I'd like to now. Can I see you outside? The lake, maybe, or-yes, I think the lake's fine. Could you come down as soon as you get this?   
  
--Severus _  
  
Lily sighed; she stared out the window at the dusky sky for a minute before thinking. When she did think, it was only to move to the window to see if she could see anyone. She couldn't, but that was to be expected, as Gryffindor Tower wasn't exactly on the same height as the front steps. Flitting up to her dormitory, she took her cloak out of her trunk, closed it with a faint click, and left the Tower through the house-elf doors.  
It only took a few seconds for her to leave the castle and its many winding corridors and trick steps, one of which she hardly avoided. The sun had just vanished behind the Forbidden Forest as she walked out on the lawns; as she moved towards the glitter on the water.   
A hand on her shoulder made her start and quickly turn around, but she breathed again when she found it was only Severus.   
"You scared me."   
He smiled. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."   
She nodded in acknowledgement, and both of them walked closer to the lake. There was silence for a few moments until Lily cleared her throat.   
"So…you wanted to tell me something…so-shoot."   
He smiled. "Shoot at what? At the mysterious figure behind us in Hogwarts robes or at the giant squid or-well, you take your pick."   
Lily groaned. Turning around, she caught sight of a shadow vanishing noisily into a bush. "Prongs! Padfoot! Out!"   
A rather sheepish pair of boys crawled out of the bush. "We were just spying!"   
She nodded, arms crossed. "I can tell."   
There was silence except for Lily's folding her arms and tapping her foot impatiently.   
Suddenly a false gleam of understanding broke out over James' face. "You mean you want us to leave?"   
Lily closed her eyes. "Where is the nearest piece of castle wall I can bang my head against?"   
Severus grinned. "Why not his head?"   
Sirius grinned half-heartily. "We'll just go then, shall we?"   
Lily turned her back to them as an answer. "Lovely tonight, isn't it?"   
James sighed. "That was a hint. Eh, well. C'mon, Padfoot…"   
He and Sirius faded noisily into the castle, and Lily's sharpened hearing could catch snatches of what they were saying.   
"Why didn't we bring the cloak? We could have used it!"   
"Because it's buried under my bed and I don't want to go looking for it!"   
"But…"   
Here the conversation flickered out, and Lily turned to Severus again. "We have gotten rid of the idiots. Talk to me."   
He laughed. "You're good at getting rid of people."   
"Are you hinting something? Don't answer that," she amended. "But go ahead."   
"Sure." He sighed, then started walking around the lake, kicking at some fairy dust here and there. One or two fairy clumps still lived at Hogwarts, though they had almost all left the grounds since students had formed the practice of packing them in snowballs during the wintertime and throwing them at the Whomping Willow. They liked to come out at twilight, scrubbing the dust off of their wings, which had been termed 'fairy dust'. It itched terribly, and, in contrast to Muggle perception, it didn't make things or people fly.   
"You remember Christmas-and what happened that night?"   
She was running a bit to keep up with him, and he finally noticed that, slowing down. "Sorry."   
"Don't mention it. Of course I remember."   
"Er-well, yes. I wanted to-I-er-"   
"She is waiting impatiently for his answer. He hesitates to give it to her; anxiously, she bends forward. Will he ever tell her? Wait for the next episode, my friends; it's airing next week at eight Monday night! And now we are greeted with the ever-popular-"   
"Okay, okay, I'll talk!"   
"Phew. I thought for a minute you'd forgotten."   
Severus half-lifted a corner of his mouth as he reached down for a smooth stone. Reaching back, he threw it over the lake, where it skipped six times before finally sinking.   
"I wanted to say I'm sorry for following you…and Potter. I guess I thought something was up…and I got sort of jealous…I never dreamed that Lupin was a-a-a werewolf. I just thought you were getting into something-and I told you how it was," he pleaded, hands in a beseeching, helpless gesture; flung out in front of him.   
"Black asked me what had been pushed through my head this time at dinner one night. I lost it…I point-blank pulled out my wand and told him to tell me where Potter went every month-I didn't mention you. He told me…and told me how to get there.   
"I never meant for you to get so close to being bitten by Lupin; I was being stupid. I don't know why I didn't run. And then you left…and Potter-"   
"He saved your life," Lily said curtly.   
"Please don't say that," he winced. "I don't want to be under an obligation to him."   
She took his arm. "It doesn't matter what you want…when it comes to life…and the saving of it. It matters what happened…what people did…and what he did was something no one else there would have. He-he's noble like that…and if you were, you'd want to repay him…You'll get the chance someday--but I think, that when it comes to that…that it won't be him that you'll be saving, but someone dearer to him than he is to himself…he's got a knack to get himself out of trouble, you know."   
"I know," Severus frowned grimly. "I hate this. I won't feel…I won't feel _right _until I do something that gets me out of this…but the last thing I want to do is something for him." He looked down into her dreamy face. "What you just said is going to be ringing in my head for the rest of my life; you know that, don't you?"  
Lily smiled. "You'll eventually get tired of the everlasting bell."   
He sighed. "I suppose…but, well, what I wanted to say was that I'm sorry for following you…for being such a pillock…for everything, I guess."   
Steering him around an almost invisible inlet of the lake, Lily walked partly into the water; it was only up to the soles of her shoes, and she was still dry, but her eyes were fastened on the dusky glimmer and the candlelight sparkle of the ripples on the lake.   
"Look…look out there. It's huge…it could swallow you whole, if it wanted to…so much force, bonded together, and living…surviving…it could kill you, yet you trust it…hitherto it's been almost harmless…but who knows what could happen before the next sunset…"   
Her voice diminished as she stared away from him, away from everything but the looming, grey-blue expanse of water, but her mind was on Tom…not on the lake.

Their N.E.W.T.s were coming up quickly; there only remained one Quidditch game, Gryffindor against Slytherin, before the sixth years would have to face the reality of the tests.  Most of them had already started to study, naturally, Lily was among them.  Everywhere she went, be it lunch, her bed before going to sleep, The Three Broomsticks, or an armchair in the common room, she had an opened, heavy book in front of her or on her lap.  They all had impossibly illegible titles because of their age, gold corners at the edges, and some of them she pulled out her wand and muttered something over before opening them—those were trademarks of the books in the Restricted Section of the library; Dumbledore had given her a pass for them.

James and Sirius had been caught sneaking into the Forbidden Forest looking for an ingredient to a potion by the keeper of grounds; the recipe for which they had stolen from one of Lily's books from the Restricted Section.  Every evening, before they went to mop floors, polish door-handles, disembowel creatures for Professor Maar or Professor Cauldwell, or something of that sort, they could be heard moping and complaining all the way to their detention and quite some time beforehand.  James' complaint that he'd miss Quidditch practice didn't shake Professor McGonagall's sentence.

_Study of Ancient Runes was getting harder, too.  They were learning J.R.R. Tolkien's __Quenyi, his language for the High-Elves, which was based on a cult of small elvish creatures that lived somewhere in the Mediterranean.  The Tolkien language was easier than the elvish one, but the structure and some of the words were similar, so by exam time, they were expected to know not only how to translate and write a few sentences in Quenyi, but to translate some of the elf-cult's common phrases.  _

They were doing human Transfiguration in Professor McGonagall's class, and more and more students were walking out of her classroom with cushions instead of legs or large, fluffy tails.  It was much harder than most of them believed it was, and as Professor McGonagall had warned them that they would be changing themselves into an armchair for part of their exam, the common rooms were soon filled with muttered or shouted incantations, half-and-half armchairs and other things of that sort, and frustrated _Finite __Incantatems._

Lily didn't visit Tom any more that year.  She had no wish to get in the middle of another fight between him and Litharelen, and Tom was busy now.  More and more of the Slytherins were talking in hushed voices about their father's new friend, or their new master, and she had seen one of the seventh years, one that had failed sixth year, pull up his left sleeve and show his peering friends the skull with the snake coming out of its mouth branded into his arm.

Rumors everywhere were slowly frightening people all over England.  Tom had been gaining power since Lily had been in her fourth year, and he was planning to move to their country.  It was terrifying to most people; the others didn't care or were on Tom's side.  

But they didn't know why they were afraid, and they weren't nearly afraid enough.  If Lily had reason to be and was afraid of pain and death, she would have been; she knew Tom better than anyone, except Litharelen, and she knew how dangerous he was, knew how cruel and heartless he could be, and she realized what a reign of terror the magical and Muggle world was in for.  

But she couldn't stop it.  No will of a fifteen-year-old could stop the rise to power of one of the greatest wizards of all time, and she knew that all too well.  Not even hers, though she had known him, was friendly with him, and had saved his fiancée from an almost certain death.  Litharelen hadn't been able to turn his mind from its purpose, and if she couldn't do it, then Lily was definitely not going to be able to.  

Lily had tried to push all this out of her mind, but it kept coming back, it kept intruding, and she found herself reaching involuntarily for the chain around her neck, hoping some way to deter Tom's mind from its purpose, before she came to her senses and retracted her hand.

She was getting along all right with the Marauders; at least with Sirius and Remus.  Peter was too shy for her, and he never really talked much.  Lily had always wondered why he, a tagalong nutcase, had ever been let into the Marauder group, but she supposed there had to be some quality of a danger-loving rulebreaker in him somewhere for the boys to like him that much.  

James she didn't see too often…he was usually poring over books in the common room with Serena, doing his detentions, making jokes about teachers in their classes, or he was at Quidditch practice.  Lily had to smile every time she saw him with Serena…he had an odd light in his eyes that never came to light when he was speaking to anyone else.  She didn't know if Sirius and Remus had seen it; she didn't think so, for she knew that they'd ridicule him beyond anything that was dear to anyone if they did.

Professor Dorvan was jumping the gun when it came to curses.  They were only supposed to learn about the Unforgivable Curses in their seventh year, but without consulting anyone, Professor Dorvan was teaching them the ways to block the curses, though only one in five thousand wizards were capable of performing the countercurses only to the Cruciatus Curse, even if they weren't rolling on the floor, screaming.  

So far they had only practiced the words, though that was all they were going to be doing; their teacher had no intention of going to Azkaban for torturing her students.  The Imperious Curse, though, they were facing; they were doing idiotic things like rummaging through their desks and making paper airplanes out of notes they had been passing, and then handing them to Professor Dorvan.  They had learned not to pass notes in her class.

Professor Flitwick, the small Charms teacher, was trying to bury the steps to decorating a room with holiday trappings into their heads; he was trying as hard as he could to make them understand the basic principles of making snow non-melting, but the whole class seemed to have developed a sort of block about it, maybe because they were standing in a classroom with snow falling from the ceiling.

The last Quidditch game, Gryffindor against Slytherin, would decide not only which House won the Quidditch Cup, but which house won the House Cup, unless someone from the winning House did something stupid and lose about a hundred points or so.  

Along with everyone else, Lily was excited and anxious for the game; though she wasn't the kind of Quidditch lover like James, who would suffocate if he were taken off of his broomstick, it was fun to watch once in a while.  

The teams were practicing late, and they would come in growling if a thunderstorm hit, complaining that Madam Hooch wouldn't let them practice through the thunderstorms.  Lily could see Madam Hooch's point of view when she looked at the windows; whips of rain were lashing the windows, bolts of lightning wider than their fists were glancing down the golden hoops on the Quidditch field, and the sky, purple and dark blue, was lit up to a pale grey ever so often when one of those lightning bolts struck.  Lily saw no reason why the team was complaining about being sent inside.

It was pouring water balloons the morning of the match, and Peeves couldn't have been more delighted.  He had pushed a melancholy ghost that haunted one of the girls' toilets to try to drown herself, and he was pleased with the result.  So pleased, in fact, that he had cleaned out the Gryffindors' supply of red clothing.  They appeared at breakfast in the regular black school robes, devoid of crimson cloaks, burgundy hoods, ruby scarves, and scarlet socks.  Peeves was taken to task for that, but when Professor McGonagall found that he had put a few of the socks into the bread mixture, the students as a whole reached for their plates and shoved them as far away from them as possible.  

Soon, however, the noisy group rose from their seats and made for the Quidditch field, where they trooped into their seats.  Everyone was too excited about a good Quidditch game to notice that the members of the Gryffindor team were looking slightly more pale than was normal.

Most people had had the foresight to bring umbrellas; those that didn't were sharing.  Lily didn't want to bother with one, so she had simply thrown on Severus' cape, pulled the hood on over her head, and charmed it with the _Impervius spell; it was repelling water now, and she was relatively dry; at least, she was less soaked than those that hadn't brought umbrellas.  Lily was kept busy for a few minutes, charming other people's cloaks and robes, but then the game started, and they could almost forget about the rain._

The Ravenclaw commentator had been removed because of the biased comments, and a Slytherin boy with dark hair and icy grey eyes was commentating.  They seemed to go through commentators awfully quickly, Lily thought, though the one before the Ravenclaw had graduated; she hadn't been discharged.

Down on the field, the teams mounted their brooms.  On Madam Hooch's whistle, they rose into the air; there was a momentary squabble over the Quaffle, and then the commentary started.

"And they're off!  Quaffle goes to James Potter of Gryffindor; he's heading up the field there, skirts a Bludger and a Beater, and makes his way around Slytherin Chaser Reynold Atherton—the Quaffle goes to Miranda Shaw of Gryffindor.  She does a nice swerve underneath Slytherin Seeker Roger Knappett, leans forward—and the Quaffle goes to Rebecca Oxley of Gryffindor—Potter—Shaw—Potter—and Potter scores!  Ten-zero to Gryffindor!"

The Gryffindors' cheers pierced the falling rain, and James, contrary to his usual feint of bowing exaggeratedly, was squinting through the sheets of water at something.  

"Quaffle goes to Slytherin Chaser Charlotte Rowlands; she elbows Oxley in the side, dodges a Bludger—and the Quaffle is in the hands of Atherton—Rowlands—and Rowlands is heading up the field—flying, flying…aiming--!"  
Suddenly, a large Bludger came hurtling from John's direction when Reynolds had her arm raised to throw.  It caught her off guard, despite the warning cries of her teammates, seized her in the side, and bowled her over several times; she was barely clinging on to her broom with her knees when it stopped hurtling.  Climbing on top of her broom again, she shot a death glare at John, but it was too late; the Quaffle was in the hands of the Gryffindors, and the match went on.

"Quaffle goes to Oxley of Gryffindor; she's heading up the field, throws—Quaffle to Shaw—Potter…Potter flying—Shaw—Potter—Oxley—no, no—Oxley dropped the Quaffle; it's in the hands of Slytherin Chaser Gerard Fulford.  Fulford flying towards the goalposts—Quaffle stolen from him by Potter—that was a snatch underneath the arm there, and Potter's flying up the field…"

Soon the score was fifty to thirty for Gryffindor, and the game was getting rougher.  John was hitting Bludgers right and left, barely missing his teammates as the Slytherins bowled over and over, scarcely hanging on to their brooms.  Besides that, if possible, the rain started to hurtle down even harder than it had been, and people were standing in puddles in the stands.  Lily had resorted to performing the Impervius charm twice on cloaks, hoods, and robes, and she had started doing it to people's shoes, too.  Most of the students carrying umbrellas were soaked, including Lora and Sirius, who were sharing one, and wanted to see if they could last the game without drowning.  Presently it didn't look too good.

Up in the air, the match went on.

"Slytherin Chaser Atherton heading towards the goals—he aims—no, he throws the Quaffle to Fulford there—back to Atherton—Rowlands—Fulford—Rowlands—ROWLANDS SCORES!!  SCORE IS EIGHTY TO SIXTY!"

The Slytherin end was cheering as hard as they could, though the Gryffindors were booeing with all their might.  With renewed energy, the teams started to play again.

"Slytherin Beater Alan Greenwood launches nasty Bludger at Gryffindor Beater Shaw—she ducks, but not fast enough—OUCH!—that must have hurt, straight on the jaw!"

Miranda was sinking to the ground, grasping her mouth with both hands, only narrowly holding a scream of pain in.  Lily almost ran down to her, but the crowd prevented her from moving at all.

"Oh, that must have _hurt!  But—wait—no, she's up!  She's back in the air!  And—the game continues!"_

Anya had landed first, and she had sprinted over to Miranda, splashing her with mud.  She had bent down, and Miranda had said something; straightway after that, both girls regained their brooms.  Suddenly, everyone's attention was drawn to both Anya and Knappett, the Slytherin Seeker, who were heading for a remote golden, gleaming point near the bottom of the goalposts.

Everyone was on the tips of their toes, holding their breath.  

"Both Seekers heading for the Snitch!  MacGregor pulls ahead—no, Knappett—they're neck to neck—wait—where'd that Bludger come from—Winters hits a nasty one towards both of them—Knappett curls over—and—MACGREGOR CATCHES THE SNITCH—GRYFFINDOR WINS THE MATCH!"

Hordes of Gryffindors were pouring onto the muddy field, along with the rain, hugging the team members and lifting them onto their shoulders, cheering with all their might.  All except Miranda; Madam Pomfrey immediately transported her to the hospital wing; her jaw was broken.  

That was the only drop of uneasiness that the Gryffindors felt that day, as Professor Dumbledore presented Nigel with the Quidditch Cup and it was passed along to Anya, who raised it high above the crowds, almost crying with glee and happiness.


	57. End of term marks, a birthday, and costl...

The rest of the afternoon and the night, while rain and bits of branches hit the windows and walls of the castle, the party in Gryffindor House raged.  Lora and Sirius had managed to sneak the trophy out of its position in the trophy room, and it was standing proudly in the middle of the common room.  James would have helped, but as one of the Quidditch heroes, his disappearance would have been noticed, and so would his reappearance from underneath an Invisibility Cloak.  He was also rather incapable of moving without wincing and groaning a bit, as he seemed to be the major target for the Slytherin Beaters.

Remus, Sirius, Peter, and Lora had made their way down to the kitchens before the Gryffindors returned.  Within a good quarter-hour, they were back with half of the food that had been made for the Gryffindor dinner table, including sausages, custards, pastries, puddings, ice cream, cakes, éclairs, treacle tarts—everything they could sneak out of the kitchens.  

The house-elves were falling over each other to hand them as many platters and pitchers as they could, and they ended up having to make five trips each.  Sirius and Remus made several secret trips to Hogsmeade for candy from Honeydukes and butterbeer from The Three Broomsticks, which was meanwhile giving them a discount, as they always bought such a large amount for the parties.

The result was magnificent.  The common room was piled high with everything they could imagine when it came to sweets, and Gryffindor banners were smothering the windows and walls.  Lora had even managed to lure a fairy into the room, and it took its place on top of the Quidditch cup, sparkling with glee.

Everyone was laughing that night, and everyone, including Serena, Elspeth, and Diana, stuffed their faces until they couldn't hold any more.  

It was after the party that the real studying for the exams began; not only Lily was burying herself in the library.  It was usually crowded during the evening hours they had free, and every single fifth, sixth, and seventh year was edgier, if possible, than they had been the last year.  

The Gryffindors and some Slytherins were swamping Lily with requests to get them books from the Restricted Section of the library, and Madam Pomfrey was keeping her at her wits' ends for excuses on why she needed books entitled _Grotesque Transformations:  The Secret Behind it all or __Transfigurations to be Avoided._

Easter holidays went by so quickly that the students hardly noticed they had passed.  Peter had actually asked James when they would start, a week after they had passed.  It had provided a large laugh when James interrupted the common room's studying, and Peter got several crumpled bits of parchment thrown at his head.

April and May passed quickly.  Professor Dorvan was putting double the strength of the Imperious Curse on them, and they were finding it harder and harder to resist.  Hardly anyone could throw it off, and when she advanced to triple the strength, they were starting to become desperate.  Each and every student, including Lily, would be limping along to the Great Hall for dinner after doing impossible flips and handstands, and throwing the curse off in the middle of them.  

James and Peter returned from Care of Magical Creatures with scars on their wrists; they were trying to tame griffins, creatures with the front legs and head of a giant eagle and body and hind legs of a lion.  It was rumored that experts could tame it, but James said darkly that there were no experts in England, then, including Professor Kettleburn.

The morning of the Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests was a beautiful day, in contrast to the storms and drizzles they had been having.  

"We are cursed," James mumbled as he dragged his feet into the Great Hall.  "We are, quite simply, without a question of a doubt, cursed."  
"Cursed?" Lily sniffed, who was walking next to him.  "How so?"  
"We are!  Normal people wouldn't have to do this—this—"

"James, it's only an exam," she stated wearily.

"Yeah, but an exam that could kill us!"

Lily groaned.  "I give up."  
"That works.  But sit next to me, okay?  I haven't quite figured out what the point is of burning dragon's blood to make that acidy potion…"

It was much harder than the Ordinary Wizarding Levels had been; in the first place, there were more questions, and they were covering things that most of the students had only heard once in a lifetime and never remembered, like what color the hippocampus was that was caught by merpeople off the shores of Scotland in 1949.  The answer was pale blue, but some later revealed that they had given answers like 'sixteen'.

The day passed more quickly than they thought it would; by three o'clock, the sixth year as a whole was finished, and they were free to leave.  They weren't free of studying yet, though; Lily, the Marauders, Lora, and quite a few others were hurrying to their books for tomorrow's Divination test, an exam that most of them would very probably fail.  Lily was surer of herself than most of the Gryffindors; she knew that she could make up things easily, and she was going to, if that was the only way to make a perfect grade in that class.

Professor Trelawney gave one of the most idiotic exams any of them had seen yet, though they were glad that they hadn't received a harder assignment.  They had to, using crystal balls, tea leaves, palms, and calculations, predict the amount of N.E.W.T.s they would receive.

Backwards psychology was needed here; all of the students except about one or two gave an impossible answer after giving up on the divination part.  They told her that they would receive three N.E.W.T.s, which she loved; pessimism was her favorite aspect of her profession.  She didn't seem to recognize that no one, ever, had received three N.E.W.T.s; it was impossible to obtain below five.

Lily, on the other hand, knew almost exactly what score she was going to get, and, quite honestly, she told Professor Trelawney that she would accept twenty-two N.E.W.T.s, which was the amount of O.W.L.s she got last time.  Professor Trelawney wasn't too pleased, but she couldn't fail Lily, because she knew that Lily _would get that many or more, since she had ranked at the top of the fifth years in the magical world.  _

Finally, after a long, grueling week of testing, they were free, liberated, released from the monotony of the Great Hall and the scratching of quills on parchment, they had no more classes or testing to sit through, and they could lie on the grass in front of the castle and blow soap bubbles at the giant squid's eyes to their heart's content.

It was even hotter than it had been last year, which seemed almost impossible.  But it was more comfortable next to the lake, which offered cool breezes that flowed over them.  Scattered all over the lawns, Hogwarts' student population sprawled, talking lazily to each other, performing Freezing charms on their friends' hair, and poking their not-so-well-liked classmates with Tarantallegra hexes, which, besides the rather embarrassing quickstep one was forced to do, made a sweat break out, and the teachers had forbidden anyone from even dipping their toes in the lake.  Actually, they had threatened the loss of one hundred and fifty points to the student's House that even waded into the lake, but they had gotten the idea.

Lily was sitting cross-legged in a group composed of Sirius, Remus, Peter, James, Lora, Amanda, and Eva.  Serena, Elspeth, and Diana had gone inside, after they had learned how to perform the Freezing charm properly, at which they had received the idea to charm the atmosphere in their dormitory.  Lily snickered to herself, and when they had vanished, she burst out laughing.  

She had tried that before, and it hadn't worked, at least not in the way she had thought it would.  It simply froze one molecule of the air at a time, and it was an impossible task to charm an entire dormitory one molecule at a time before school let out.

James frowned—he knew what she was laughing at, and he filled his friends in, too.  He was the only one that wasn't laughing at the end of his small speech.

"You mean they're going to be freezing air, one molecule at a time?"

"Oh, what _idiots!"_

"Well, looks like someone's going to lose their temper rather soon."

"Exactly; it would take them _years!_

James hit Sirius with the back of his hand.  "Cut it out, will you?"

"Why?"

James glared at him.

"Oh, okay, okay!  Fine.  I won't laugh now.  May I snicker when she accidentally freezes herself?"

James glared at him.

"Okay, okay!  Calmness…a virtue of great sorts…James, I won't pick at her."  
Lora's face widened into a smile, and James rounded on her.  Her grin dropped.

"You ruin all the fun.  Fine.  I won't, either."                  

"Good."

Lily couldn't resist.  "Just one little bitty snicker?"  
It turned out that Serena didn't lose her temper; and she didn't do anything undignified of sorts.  She simply reappeared, with her school robes off, and wearing only shorts and a short-sleeved shirt.  It was no more extreme than anything anyone else was wearing, but on her it looked…well, it looked _vulgar.  She had a talent for that.___

Quickly, the week passed, and Professor McGonagall was handing out their marks at breakfast on Saturday.  There were excited squeals and disgruntled groans; satisfied "Phew!"s and disappointed "But…"s.  The noises of tearing paper could be heard all through the Great Hall, into the entrance hall, and out onto the grounds.

James leaned back in his seat with a satisfied grin on his face after ripping his envelope in half and tearing his mutilated letter out.  He had received thirteen N.E.W.T.s—he only had had twelve Ordinary Wizarding Levels last year.  Coolly slurping a glass of pumpkin juice, he listened, pleased, to Serena's congratulatory squeals.

On Lily's part, she turned the parchment envelope over and over before opening it, fingering the ruby wax seal and her name written in sparkling emerald ink at least seven times prior to slitting it open with her butter-knife and pulling out her marks, also written in the glittery green liquid.

_Dear Miss Evans,_

_Your scores are, for the following classes:_

_Transfiguration:  115%_

_Potions:  119%_

_Defense Against the Dark Arts:  125%_

_Charms:  156%_

_Herbology:  121%_

_Astronomy:  132%_

_Divination:  97%_

_Anatomy:  119%_

_A Study of Ancient Runes:  128%_

_Dear Miss Evans,   
We are pleased to inform you of your scores for the Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests (N.E.W.T.s).  We would like to remind you that these are internationally standardized exams and that your score reflects your progress in comparison to other young wizards and witches of your age.   
The amount of Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests you may hope to obtain is thirty; though hardly five wizards and witches per magical school obtain above twelve.   
Your placement is, out of the sixth year Hogwarts examinees: 1 out of 151   
Your placement is, out of the sixth year European examinees: 1 out of 18,954   
Your placement is, out of the sixth years attending magical schools, excluding homeschools: 1 out of 10,984,853   
You have earned the honorable degree of twenty-four (24) Exhausting Wizarding Tests (N.E.W.T.s).  
With our congratulations, we are   
  
The International Board of School Directors_

Lily looked up in a daze.  They used exactly the same wording as they had when they gave her her scores for the O.W.L.s, but still…her fifth year, her scores were tops, and now this…She floated in a sort of dreamland until her marks were snatched out of her hands.

Sirius glanced up and down the parchment.  "You _didn't!"_

Lora, puzzled, leaned over.  "What?"

"She got top scores.  _Again."_

"Top scores—lemme see that."  James ripped the letter cleanly out of Sirius hands and nearly choked on his pumpkin juice.

"Ex_cuse me?  What is this—__out of the sixth years attending magical schools, excluding homeschools:  1 out of ten million something?  And I thought I was good!__  You officially make me want to hit you!"_

Smiling composedly, Lily retrieved her letter from his hands and folded it up, placing it in her pocket.  Inside, however, she wasn't nearly as unruffled as she appeared; she was tumbling and turning cartwheels and leaping off of two thousand-foot-high cliffs into the sea…

Eva simply beamed at her from across the table; she knew how her friend was feeling.  "Lily, that's wonderful!"

Eva herself had received nine O.W.L.s; she had done quite well, in comparison with some of the other fifth years.  Amanda had nine, too; Lora had ten N.E.W.T.s; Sirius had twelve, Remus ten, and Peter seven.  Lucius and Severus showed her theirs later on that day; each of them had eleven, and each pair of eyes that saw hers almost detached their own nerve cells and flicked themselves out of their skulls.

Almost unaware of them all, the holidays were coming up quickly.  The morning of their departure, Lily was halfheartedly sitting on her bed, placing folded robes inside her trunk, and dreamily staring out of the window.

"I don't want to go back.  I feel more at home here than I ever will…with the people here…they're more of a family to me than anyone else in the world.  I know we fight, but so do siblings…"

The sunlight poured onto her upturned face as she gazed at a flock of birds circling the sun.

Before they boarded the train, Professors McGonagall, Maar, Flitwick, and Dorvan were handing out end-of term notices saying they weren't allowed to use magic over the summer—Lily and all the rest either made faces or groaned as they received these.  Still, they used the rest of the time they had with each other to pile into compartments and to pull out games; Lily shared one with Lora, Eva, Amanda, and Vanessa.  They had set up a game of chess on one of the seats; Lily and Eva were sitting on the two next to the chessboard; Amanda and Vanessa were challenging each other to a game of Exploding Snap, and Lora was building a card castle out of the remaining Exploding Snap cards, knocking it over and singeing someone's sleeve whenever she thought they looked too interested in what they were doing.  

Finally, Lily sat back and sighed, having just taken Eva's queen.  "You know, Eva—somehow I doubt whether anything'll stay the same."

Eva looked up, surprised.  "What?  Of course it will; what are you saying?"

"Nothing," Lily checked herself.  "I just wish things didn't have to change…"

"Nothing lasts forever," Lora intoned, sounding exactly like a bad actress in a terribly written play—unbelievable and fake.

"I know, I know…still, it would be nice if it did," 

The Hogwarts express roared on through the countryside, spilling grey smoke into the air…

They all spattered out onto the platform at King's Cross as soon as it stopped; in the case of James and Sirius, before it stopped.  The platform was filled with waiting families and grinning siblings, shouting welcome banners for the former seventh years and some lower years, and a pleased, family-like racket and mayhem everywhere.  Casting one longing glance at a child that was given a large kiss on the cheek by her mother and swung into the air by her father, she markedly turned her trolley towards the barrier.  Closing her eyes to shut out the families all around her, she pushed her luggage through it. 

Lily opened her eyes to the Muggle world of King's Cross.  It was as usual; hurried men and women in correct business suits were walking past with absolutely no consideration for the children that had popped through a stone wall.  Lily cast a glance around, looking for her parent and sister, but she couldn't find them; she had already walked to the entrance of the train station before she saw them hurrying towards her. 

With a vague, uncertain smile on their faces, Petunia and her father greeted her.  By now, Petunia was seventeen, and she was starting to look down on her little sister.  Her father, on the other hand, almost froze at the half-glare Lily gave him before she remembered what James had tried to hammer into her head and checked herself.

"Hello, Father, Petunia," she greeted them, more constrained than she had ever said anything to them before. 

"Lily, you're here…good.  Er—let me get your trunk—you can't carry that…"

Lily felt herself surrounded by something unpleasant; the familiar, warm atmosphere that had surrounded her at Platform 9 and ¾ had utterly vanished when she met her father and sister…a strain of something close to dislike had spread over the barrier between them.  When her mother was alive, nothing had ever been like this…

She was quieter than she had been in months; without a word, she settled into her room, quietly, she unpacked her trunk and went down to dinner.

Lily wasn't used to the silence that had draped itself over the dinner table that night; she wasn't used to the turkey that still had its innards in the plastic bag inside it (Petunia had forgotten to remove it), and even less familiar was she with the glances she kept getting shot with from her father and sister. All in all, it was an extremely uncomfortable meal, and Lily felt herself wishing that she was _anywhere_ else; by now, even a black hole was sounding interesting and as if it contained edible, well-cooked food.   
After dinner, Petunia had removed herself to her room, and her father was busily attacking a heap of papers on one end of the dining-room table, while Lily, with a sigh, moved over to the sink, pulled out a dishcloth from a drawer, and started to wash the plates on the counter.   
No one really spoke much that evening; as a matter of fact, the only thing that was said was "Petunia, what is _that?_" which was stated after her father had accidentally bitten into a piece of the plastic bag with turkey intestine inside it. Lily slipped into bed with the deepest dissatisfaction imprinted onto her forehead; in other words, she was frowning.

Over the next few days, her father dragged her around to several of his business parties or dinners; Lily honestly didn't see the point of this; if his business was as in as much trouble was he said it was, why bother to host parties? She met only one or two people her age there; one a girl with dishwater blond hair, unmatching rings in the hundreds, and a purple dress that reminded Lily rather strongly of an eggplant. She wasn't very friendly, either; her name was Gertrude Richardson, and she liked peas, as she informed Lily on their first meeting.   
The other person she met was actually two years older than she was. His father owned a large company, the name of which meant about as much to Lily as "Bzzrjwilk" did, but he evidently expected her to recognize it.

If he hadn't been acting as annoyingly superior as he was, Lily would actually have found him handsome; he had blond, cornsilk hair and sea-grey eyes, or, unromantically, hair that looked like it had come into too much contact with the bleach usually found next to washing machines and cement-colored holes in his head.  Still, the latter description wasn't one that jumped to Lily's mind; she leaned towards the former.  

He was dressed in a grey business suit, which made him appear at least two years older than he was.  Lily didn't think she would like to talk to him much at first, but he came over to her while she was trying to salvage her white dress from a punch stain, handed her some napkins from the table, and tried to help her.  Both of them started to laugh when she shredded one of the paper napkins into tiny pieces trying to get the red stain out of her dress, and by the time they had stopped, Lily had decided he wasn't so bad to talk to.  

His name was Richard Walden, he went to a boarding school somewhere in Wales, he liked cats but couldn't stand the fur they kept shedding (he had five), his birthday was December fourteenth; he worked at a bookstore even though his father could have bought seven of the same shops and never have noticed the difference in his bank account, he loved anything about the ancient Egyptians; he wanted to become an archeologist when he was older, and couldn't wait to get out of the house so he could travel places.  

She kept seeing him again; at almost every business dinner she was forced to go to, he was there.  Serena had attended several of them; Rowland Sikora had started going deeper into trying to understand Muggle ways of life, so he was taking an interest in several firms and their job openings; he was planning to give the jobs to several wizards that would be happy to take them.  Serena tried to talk to Richard and Lily (well, actually, Richard), but Lily's new friend didn't seem to like her much; he hardly talked to her and looked rather bored when she was speaking to him and flicking her hair over her shoulder for effect.

One evening, about three days before Lily's birthday, she was at another event; this one was the grand opening of a theatre.  Her father had almost literally pushed her into a dark grey, floor-length dress, and she was wearing a necklace of paste diamonds.  She had been rushed out of the house in such a hurry that she hadn't had time to put her hair up in a knot; it was hanging down her back, loose, when they arrived at the theatre.

Almost magnetically, Richard found her; threading through the crowd, he took her arm; they joined the crowd that stood around a fat, old man with an ornamental knife in his hand; he was standing behind the blue ribbon furled across the doorway.  After a short speech, he raised the knife, and, with incredible force for a man so small, brought it down on the blue band, which tore in the middle.  The crowd outside filed in, and a society murmur of small-talk began drifting through the lobby.

Richard handed her a sliver of cake.  "It's not much, but more people showed up than I thought they would."

Lily smiled.  "That's all right—I don't think I'm all that hungry, anyway."  She accepted the napkin and plate; moving towards the wall, they found two chairs.

Richard shook his head, grinning.  "You know, I never expected to meet people here that I actually would like—thank goodness your father likes to take you along!"

She laughed.  "I thought the same thing—I never would have enjoyed these dusty old croaks telling me how red my hair is over and over and over again…You know, the most annoying things people tell you are usually obvious facts?"

Richard handed her a glass of something that looked like champagne and probably was.  "Like what?"  
"Oh—" Lily shrugged.  "Like, 'You have punch on your dress,' or 'Your eyes are very green,' or even 'You don't look like you're forty.'  It's amazing, the things people come up with—I think they talk to keep from thinking."

"That's true!"  He laughed along with her.  "They probably do."

Just then, the cathedral's clock struck eight o'clock, and Richard pulled out a a grayish-blue box from inside his jacket.

"Lily?"

"Yes?" she asked, spinning around to face him. 

"I—er, I brought you something…I don't think I'll see you again before your birthday, so…"  He handed her the package.  "I hope you like it."

Rather awkwardly, Lily reached for it.  "Thanks.  You didn't have to…you know that."

"Yes, but I wanted to.  Open it," he insisted.

She smiled at him and gently lifted the lid off of the box.  Inside was a small bracelet only an eighth of an inch wide, golden, with a miniature inscription in hieroglyphics on the inside and a larger one on the outside.

Lily looked up at him, her eyes sparkling.  "Thank you."

He grinned.  "If you translate it, it's a message I ordered the people that made it to put on there…"

"I've got a book on translations at home…well, actually, a bookshelf.  I'll do that first thing, then."  
"Actually…"—here he looked rather embarrassed—"I'd rather you did it on your birthday…I meant it for then."

Surprised, she dropped the bracelet back into the box and slid it into her pocket.  "Of course, if you'd like."  
"I _would like, actually…"  
"Then I'll do that," she smiled._

The evening of her birthday, Lily was sitting on the sill of her open window, dressed in only a white summer nightgown, staring outside at the night sky shot with dusky clouds.  Nothing special had happened that day; for all she experienced, it _was just like any other.  Sill…well, this was her last summer at home, her last birthday she'd spend here.  She wasn't coming back here after she finished Hogwarts; she was accepting the job as a student or substitute professor at the school if she couldn't find a job elsewhere.  _

It was sickening, the way people stayed out of her way here…Petunia had kept Vernon Dursley away from the house, and she herself hardly lived there while Lily was in the house.  She kept expecting her father to forbid her return to Hogwarts the next year, but he was either too nervous to or he had a good reason not to…

And no packages had come from her friends; not even a short _Happy __Birthday on a piece of parchment… For the first time in her life, Lily knew what it was to feel completely and utterly alone.  When her mother had died, she had still had friends, and when some people had deserted her, she still had others to stand by her._

Winking away tears, she took the grey-blue box out of her pocket and slid the lid off.  Picking up the golden bracelet, she dangled it in front of her eyes, then let it fall into the palm of her hand…Richard hadn't forgotten her…

She let the tears run freely down her face as she stared at the moonlight glinting off of the gold in her fingers.  Reaching for a book that she had placed on the floor beside her, she flipped to the alphabet of the ancient Egyptians.

She stayed up for the rest of the night, wanting to go to sleep but being unable to.  What she had read had brought something to her—a feel of assurance and support she hadn't felt in ages.  

_Remember, someone, somewhere, loves you was written on the outside; the inside held this inscription:  __And he may be closer than you think._

The next morning, one owl dropped by; Lora and Eva had sent her something; a journal, covered with garnet velvet.  Embossed in silver, on the cover, were the words:  _A book someone will publish someday—no one has thoughts like you do!  Lora had written a short note on the inside, and she and Eva had signed it._

_Lily,_

_Happy birthday, first of all.__  Secondly, don't kill anyone before Hogwarts starts next term.  It's irreversible._

_Lora & Eva_

_This be'eth from thine companion, Eve—Ignore her.  I know you won't kill anyone.  Have a good summer, a happy sixteenth, and I heard you made a friend already.  Can you introduce him to me?  Is he a wizard?  How often have you seen him?  (This from Lora, who has been reading over my shoulder.  Read this in an interrogatory, slightly displeased and slightly humorous tone) Is he stuck on you?_

_Eva & Lora, who really wanted her name first!_

_Is he stuck on you?  That sentence kept reverberating around inside her head for the rest of the day…_

She saw Richard once before she received her letter for Hogwarts; at a speech at a private school she asked him what he meant by the inscriptions.

"Oh, nothing, really," he evaded—"I guess you'll find out some day."

"Is that a hint?"

"Maybe.  Ssh; Father's glaring at me—we'll talk later."

_Maybe._

They didn't get to speak again that night; Lily's father insisted that she be in bed before ten-thirty, so she left without telling anyone that she _was leaving.  After that, she didn't see him again that summer._

Lily was sitting at the kitchen table around ten in the morning near the end of July; she was glaring at the headline of the newspaper, though she hadn't bothered to read the headline.  It was the first time she had ever managed to stare at something for a half hour and not know what it said.

The large Hogwarts barn owl that swooped down through the window neatly dropped the envelope it was carrying on top of the newspaper, turning her attention from the headline that, as far as she was concerned, was informing the world about the dreadful infestation of fire ants to the Union of Snake Rings.  Lily picked up the letter, slit the envelope open, and drew the enclosure out.

_Dear Miss Evans,_

_We are pleased to inform you of your selection for this year's Head Girl.  This is a great honor and responsibility that you have been chosen to carry, and we ask you to treat it as such.  Your responsibilities will include, among other things, the control of the behavior of the students as far as your capabilities may reach.  You are permitted to remove or bestow points to or from Houses with a valid reason, and you are permitted to bestow detentions on students with a valid reason.  If you have any other questions, please address Professor Dumbledore._

_Signed—Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress_

There was another sheet included, but at the bottom of the supply list there was another, formerly nonexistent, phrase, right beneath bellinger paste for Potions.

_Dress __robes._

Lily walked into Madam Malkin's Dress Robes for All Occasions rather awkwardly the next day.  She had never gone shopping for any sort of robes other than regular school ones, and she felt appallingly self-conscious as she perused ready-made ones and patterns and fabric samples.  

There were more kinds of robes in that store than she ever hoped to encounter; wide ones, tight ones, short, long, full, draping, trailing, short sleeves, long sleeves, trailing sleeves, low necklines, high necklines, square necklines...and the colors, too.  Lily's hand went out towards a forest-green crushed velvet pair of robes sewn with gold thread, with a gold cord and tassels that tied around the waist, but then she drew back; they were too expensive.  

Farther on back in the store were accessories; hats, cloaks, slippers, scarves, socks, and even corsets.  Lily's eyes widened when she saw those.  She had always wanted to wear one, and now she might have the chance—if only they didn't cost several fortunes apiece.  

As luck would have it, as she riffled through them, her hand fell on a dark indigo velvet corset that looked about her size—her hand quickly snatched for the price tag.  She breathed in relief.  Two Galleons—that wasn't so bad.

Madam Malkin came bustling over, with the everlasting pins in her mouth.  "Still looking, are we, dear?  Oh—look at you; hardly anyone wants these—but that one would look wonderful on you.  Let's see—what color scheme do you want to go with?  Oh—wait just a minute; I've got just the thing…"  She rustled off, leaving Lily with a rather discontented expression; she knew she'd have to turn down the expensive dress robes she knew the lady would fling at her.

Still, as she was shunted into a dressing room with the corset and a pair of white silk dress robes, so translucent, gauzy, filmy, diaphanous, and pearly she couldn't resist them, she made up her mind to try her best to buy them if they fit her.

They did fit her.  Long and graceful, they fell to the floor and swung gently when she moved.  The makers of it had used at least six yards of the silk for the body of the robes, so that they appeared beautifully white; no one could see through them at all.  The sleeves were ones that could be found on old fencing shirts; they billowed out below her wrist, but were gathered just at her wrist by a band of white satin that she could either tighten there or loosen, letting the sleeves hang below her hands, in the style of medieval noblewomen, who wore their sleeves so long that they had to tie knots in them so as to keep them out of their way.  

The oval neckline, when she slipped the corset on over her head, fringed her shoulders and front nicely, and Lily only wished she could pay for this.  In the mirror, she looked like an old-fashioned queen; the only time she had ever really wanted to look nice, she wouldn't be able to.  She hadn't ever looked this—this _elegant, this—well, this __thin in her lifetime, and, for once, Lily felt that she looked like someone people wouldn't be embarrassed to be seen with._

There was no price tag on the dress, so when she emerged from the fitting room, she had to move towards the front of the store, where Madam Malkin was wrapping up a pair of black robes for a small and frightened Muggle first year.

She didn't interrupt just yet; there was a mirror near a stand of hats, and she stepped in front of it, twirling slightly, feeling the silk, and looking at herself; something she hadn't done in ages.

When she turned around again to check whether Madam Malkin was finished, she caught a pair of eyes looking at her from the doorway.  Blushing a bit, she fumbled, looking for a stray thread, but there wasn't one.

Still, he stepped inside.  "Lily?"

Her face bright pink, she evaded his eyes.  "Hello."

Severus smiled at her.  "You look nice.  Are you getting those?"

"Oh—no," she stammered.  "No—I don't think so.  I don't even know what they're for…"

"Well, that's no reason not to.  You look beautiful; come on, you'll be the belle of whatever they're having."

"Thank you," she mumbled.  "I still don't know…"

Madam Malkin finally closed the cash register, and Lily gratefully took this moment to escape Severus.  She didn't know why, but she was feeling awfully shy all of a sudden, and she didn't like that.

"Er—Madam Malkin?"  
The plump, middle-aged lady spun around.  "Yes, dear—Oh, my _goodness, that looks nicer than I thought it would—turn around, sweet, and let me see—oh, __yes, definitely, this one is specially for you…"_

Lily had to interrupt the tirade.  "How much is it, please?"  
"Oh, yes, the cost…well, we'll see.  Twenty Galleons, five Sickles, dear."

It had been too much to hope for.  Lily only had thirty-three Galleons and fourteen Knuts, total, for her school shopping, and she still hadn't gotten her books yet.  Twenty Galleons was just too much.

"Er—thanks.  Thanks very much."  She turned away from the lady and started looking through sashes to hide the momentary wet glimmer that had jumped to her eyes.

When she turned away from the sashes, her eyes were dry, and Severus was gone.  Thanking him silently for leaving, she threaded her way through the piles of dress robes on the floor that were slowly accumulating.

Then, as she was flitting behind a mirror, someone took her hand.

She spun around, and the person let go.

"I thought it was you."  
"James?  What—what're you doing here?"  
He smiled.  "Buying dress robes…same as you, I'm guessing."  
"Oh—no, no, I'm not."

"Well, why're you wearing those, then?" he asked, gesturing to her attire.

"Oh—I'm not buying these—I'm not getting any."

He frowned.  "Why not?"  He saw her eyes lose the embarrassed glint; instead, a heartrending sigh took its place. 

"You look beautiful."

Her eyes whipped to his.  "_What_?" she asked.  She couldn't quite grasp what he had just said…

"You look beautiful."

"Really?"

He smiled.  "Really."

"Er…thanks."

"Sure.  No problem.  I guess for once I don't have a problem with telling the truth."

She smiled.  "Thanks.  It's nice to know that you think so…oh, but never mind."  Her sweet manner was suddenly replaced with hurt impatience.  "Never mind, don't bother telling me that, I won't be wearing them, and you'll recognize me as the little electrocuted phoenix from your second year.  Please move—I'm going to change."  She started for the fitting rooms, but he held her back by an arm around her waist.

"Hold it, now—hold on!  What's wrong, Lil?"

"Nothing," she gasped out between frustrated tears that insisted on leaking out for no real reason whatsoever, besides embarrassing her in the middle of a store. "Nothing—please go away.  _Please go away…you're making everything worse."_

"Lil, what's wrong?"  
"_Oh!"  She whirled to face the mirror; she couldn't leave; he was pinning her to the wall.  Unwillingly, and in spite of all common sense, she started to cry again.  "It's just that…well, for the first time in my __life, I want to look nice…and I get the chance to—and I can't pay for it—and it's driving me __mad.  Please go away.  You're only making it worse."_

His face cleared.  "Is that all?"

"Yes, that's it.  I know it's rather hard for the rich and famous James Potter to understand that one of the populace can't pay for a pair of dress robes, but—Oh, just _leave!"_

"Lily."  His firm tome made her turn around.  "If that's what's bothering you—then I'll get them for you."

"No."  Her voice was firm.  "I don't take charity."

He smiled.  "You're very proud, aren't you?  This isn't charity.  I forgot about your birthday, and I'm making it up to you.  Take it.  You wouldn't return a birthday gift, would you?"  
In spite of herself, Lily had to laugh.  "You do find the oddest ways of getting around me, don't you?"

"Oh," he sighed, grinning, "you're fun to talk to."

Helplessly, she smiled through curtains of tears.  Then, on an impulse, she did something that surprised both of them; she flung her arms around his neck in a strangling hug, still crying almost hysterically into his shoulder.

She let go quickly, however.  "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to do that.  I just felt so—well, happier than I've been in a long time."

He shrugged.  "I didn't mind so much.  So—how much _is this creation," he asked, appreciatively eyeing the silk._

"Twenty Galleons and five Sickles—I can pay ten of them, and I can pay for the corset—"

"Oh, no, you're not!  I forgot about your birthday, remember?  This goes on me."  
"_James __Potter!"_

"Hey, if you don't accept them, I'll buy them anyway and throw them over a bridge.  You're wearing these to that event we're having, or I'll have a good reason why not."

A last tear ran down her cheek.  "Thank—you—" she managed.


	58. The last Sorting and Tom's moving plans

She returned home that day with the white silk dress robes and the corset packaged in pale blue tissue paper.  James had insisted on it, and finally she had given in.  Lily was happier that afternoon than she had been in days; she was humming snatches of an old Civil War song as she stood at the stove, and the whole month before September first, though she hardly heard from anyone and she didn't speak much to Petunia and her father, she was brimming with exhilaration.

She boarded the train with a smile in her eyes, and when she pushed her trunk into Eva's compartment, her friend gaped at her, eyes out of the sockets, jaw unhinged, and everything.

"[i]Lily![/i]  What happened to you—you look—bloody octopus, you actually look truly happy!"

"Is there a law against that?" Lily asked as she sat down on her trunk, pushing the black Hogwarts robes off of her legs.  "I just had a good time over the holidays; that's all."

Amanda grinned.  "Well, at least you're more normal again.  We were starting to worry!"  
  


"What's [i]that[/i]," Lora asked, who had just entered the compartment and was eyeing the silver badge on Lily's robes.

"Oh—this?"  Lily flushed with pleasure.  "I was named Head Girl this year."  
"[i]Lily![/i]  That's wonderful; that's absolutely marvelous, that's simply superb—that's amazing!" Eva shrieked, wringing her hands and hugging her friend madly.  "I knew you would get it, I knew you would!"

Lily grinned.  "Thanks, Eva…"

"I [i]knew[/i] it!"

Lora groaned as she flopped down on the seats, taking up three of them.  "Eva, we know, you're psychic, now [i]shut up![/i] I'm trying to sleep!"

By the time the witch with the cart rolled by, Eva and Lily had set up a chess game, and, as usual, Lily was winning hands down, though Eva was getting much better; at least she didn't keep getting caught by the four-move win anymore.

Around the time that the girls were finishing off a pile of Chocolate Frogs, the Marauders entered, with their own arms full of candy.

"Hello, there!" Sirius greeted them, dumping his pile of Fizzing Whizbees and Every Flavor Beans into Peter's arms, who grunted a bit.  "Having fun?"  
  


Lily laughed.  "Set the candy down somewhere.  I haven't seen you for some time!"

"I know!" Sirius grinned, catching her in a loose hug and ruffling her hair.  "I expect you had fun, though?"  
  


"I did," she beamed.  James caught her eye, and she smiled at him.  Remus didn't miss that look.

"Ah[i]hah![/i]"

"Aha what?" Lily asked."

"Someone saw someone else over the summer, didn't they?"  
  


James rolled his eyes, though his cheeks were burning.  "Yes, idiot, at Madam Malkin's.  That's it."  
  


"Ah-[i]hah![/i]"

"Remus!"  Lily and James exclaimed.

Just before the train stopped, the boys dashed into an empty compartment to change into their robes; when they came back, Lily's eyes were almost magnetically and irresistibly drawn to a badge just like hers on James' chest.

"You're the Head Boy?"

"Yeah," he grinned, trying to suppress his pride and not succeeding well, "I got my letter."

Lily smiled.  "That's wonderful!"

"Oh, knock it off, you two!" Lora grumbled, leaning back against the window and interesting herself in a buzzing fly that was either trying to give itself a concussion by knocking its head against the window or trying to get outside, obviously not realizing that there was a pane of glass between it and the Great Outdoors.

They stepped off the train in high spirits, and, excited and ready for their last year, the group of seventh and sixth years took the carriage near the front of the line of horseless contraptions; all except Lily and James.  Eva and Amanda were comforting a wailing second year that was terrified of either Lily or James; or just the Head Boy and Girl badges.  Raising her eyebrows slightly, Lily stepped into an empty carriage behind the one filled with her friends, and she was rather surprised when James followed her.

He shrugged.  "I don't like wailing children much, either."  
  


"So we do have something in common," she grinned.  "That's nice to know."

James smiled at her.  "I hope you wear the dress robes…you really did look nice in them."  
  


"James Potter, is it your mission in life to make me start bawling in public?  I've done it once; don't make me do it again!"

"Sure, I'll stop," he mischievously smirked.  "Until we get into the Great Hall, that is."  
  


Lily handed him a look so like that of an executioner that he desisted.

They filed into the Great Hall; the seventh years were quieter than usual, including the Marauders; it would be their last year at Hogwarts.  Solemnly, they took their seats, and, as the first years trooped in and huddled together in front of the Sorting Hat, which was placed on the familiar three-legged stool, they watched them, oddly quiet.  When a tear near the hat's brim opened and began to sing, several of the first years jumped in surprise; the older students simply watched nostalgically.

[i] Just one thousand years ago

Were my seams sewn and pressed,

And then my job was set to me—

"Choose from the very best."

The Honoured Founders chose me for

The job of picking you

And placing you in different Houses

Whom you shall honor, too. 

Gryffindor's honor streaks crimson red

And values bravery the most

While Hufflepuff earns loyalty

And faith of which one boasts.

Ravenclaw loved the clever men

The smartest she could find

While Slytherin's honor is given by 

Shrewd guile of heart and mind.

So, as the thousandth first years here

I greet you, one and all,

For you have marked a milestone 

On history's bouncing ball.[/i]

The students applauded madly for the hat, and James leaned across the table to Lily.

"I didn't know this was exactly one thousand years after this school was founded!"

Lily nodded.  "It was.  Ssh—the Sorting!"

Professor McGonagall unfurled a large scroll of parchment she held in her hand.  Clearing her throat, she read out,  
  


"Abner, Elizabeth!"

A blonde girl with her hair in two plaits slipped the hat on over her ears.

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

The table with the Hufflepuff banners above it applauded loudly; some cheers were echoing around the Great Hall.

"Chasten, Phyllis!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

Lily looked down at her hands that were knotting in her lap; trying to hold the tears in, she was almost breaking her fingers.

"Edwards, Morag!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

It was stupid to cry; she realized that, but needles were shooting through her throat as she tried not to.  She sank her head into her hands and shut out the clatter of interested first years, bored older students, shouting hats and an announcing Deputy Headmistress, and smiling teachers.

"Furlough, Agnes!"

A tall black girl sat down on the stool; the hat slipped down over her ears.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat shouted, and the Gryffindor table started clapping frantically and madly as Agnes Furlough took her seat.

Finally, the Sorting Hat finished Sorting "Yamens, Paula" (Ravenclaw!), and Professor Dumbledore stood up, raising his hand for silence.  Immediately, though he had not said a word, the Great Hall fell under a hush, and Lily was impressed with his magnetic force of personality.

"Ladies, gentlemen, and ghosts—I have several important announcements to make.  First of all—Mr. Filch has added Dungbombs and Exploding Billywigs to the list of magical items not to be used in the corridors; the full list comprises sixty-eight items, and may be viewed in Mr. Filch's office.  

"Secondly—this school has been in existence for exactly one thousand years.   In celebration of that event, we are, against the better judgment of several of those of us who are sane,"—here his eyes twinkled across to the disapproving face of Professor McGonagall, who had the expression pasted on her countenance as if she knew exactly what would happen when Peeves found out about the announcement that Professor Dumbledore was about to make—"we are hosting a ball on June twenty-fourth, as both a farewell to our seventh years and a celebration of our long existence.  Dress robes are mandatory for the occasion, and every student in this school is allowed to attend.

"That being said, let the feast be spread!"

The feast, as usual, was magnificent, and Lily was thankful to return to a land of good food and plenty of it after her own home.  She wasn't sad at all when she thought about her father and sister; she had loved them when she was a child, but now she didn't care about them at all.  The word 'home' meant nothing to her, and it certainly didn't include the house her father owned.  She didn't intend to return to the house to even pack her things; she had taken everything valuable to her and crammed it into her trunk; everything else they could throw into the ocean for all she bothered or cared.

She felt rather shyer of people than she had in the last few years; it might simply have been that more eyes were fastened on her than usual, or, rather, on her Head Girl badge.  It struck a chord of self-consciousness inside her, and she wished she could Disapparate.  

After dinner, she led a nervous first year with a scrape on his knee to the hospital wing; Peeves had tripped him on a loosened carpet, and his knee was turning nastily red.  He wasn't shy at all; on the contrary, he started asking her question after question on the subject of Quidditch.  His new friends had introduced him to the sport on the train and during dinner (he was Muggle-born), and he was almost in rapture when she described to him the positions of the seven players and the history of the Golden Snitch, which had once been a Snidget.  He'd make a good friend for James, Lily thought dryly.

When they entered the common room (Codswalloping Columns), it was filled with chattering students.  Lily threaded her way through a crowd of gibbering third years, who were gesturing excitedly about the prospect of Hogsmeade, and knelt down on the floor in front of the Marauders.

"Have you thought about this being our last year here?"

Sirius laughed.  "It doesn't have to be.  We can all fail, can't we?"  
Peter frowned.  "That would be bad."  
  


"Not necessarily," James put in.  "We wouldn't have to bother about living quarters or food.  And we already have our books."  
  


Lily rolled her eyes.  "I'd like that, but after Hogwarts, we'd be scraping floors at the Magical Menagerie for two Sickles a month."

"Not if you married someone rich," Sirius grinned.  "Marry a millionaire, and live the rest of your life in comfort.  That's my plan, at least.  And, see, if I were a millionaire, I could buy—"

Remus groaned.  "[i]Sirius![/i]"  He turned to Lily.  "He found a motorcycle magazine that a group of Muggle kids had left in a park, and he's been raving about them ever since."

"What?" Sirius shrugged.  "I like them!  And imagine, if I could enchant the thing, it could fly, besides going at a rate of seventy miles per hour, and—"  
  


"SIRIUS!"  Remus, James, and Peter had all clapped their hands over their ears.  "STOP!"

"Er," Lily interrupted, glancing around at the astonished faces of the rest of the common room.  "Voice down, I should think…"

The next morning, Lily awoke early.  She was the first in her dormitory to reach for her robes, pull her hair into a plait, and slip her school bag over her shoulder; she was one of the first to reach the Great Hall.  James was already there, as were Sirius and Peter; Remus was sleeping late.

In spite of the amount of steak and potatoes and sherbet he had eaten last night, James was ravenous, and only moments after he had slid into a chair, his plate was piled high with bacon, toast, eggs, sausages, muffins, and scones.  When Lily joined him, he was already about half finished.

"How much did you eat last night?"  
  


"Simply lots.  But I'm hungry now.  Scones?  They've got a lot of butter in them," he informed his friend, holding the basket out to her.

"Thanks."  Lily took one, broke it apart, and started buttering it.  

James was still holding the basket of scones, and she finally set her knife down with a clatter.  "[i]What?[/i]"

"Only one?" he asked.  "They're very good."

"I will desist," she stated, looking pointedly at the bit of bacon he had spit into the basket while he was talking.

Professor McGonagall was handing out schedules, and when she came around to the Gryffindor table, Lily had to do a neat amount of hand-twisting to make sure hers didn't fall into the syrup pitcher.

"Butv be got fst?" James asked with his mouth full.  Lily gave him a look, and he swallowed his food, wiping his mouth on the sleeve of his robes.  "What've we got first?"

"Potions, with the Slytherins.  After that I've got Study of Ancient Runes, so I expect you've got Care of Magical Creatures.  We have Transfiguration after lunch."

"And then," he questioned, though obviously it wasn't really a question of which the answer was life or death.

"Bewitching large objects to start stomping on small mice."

James understood, though Peter was sitting across from her with his jaw hanging into his oatmeal.

"Charms, you nut!"

"Oh."

They made their way to the Potions dungeon after breakfast; Professor Cauldwell, sleepy and lethargic as ever, was sitting at his desk.  It might have been Lily's imagination, but he gave the impression of looking more like a cauldron every year.  

Stifling a giggle, she sat down at an empty desk and opened her book; their assignment, as usual, was written on the blackboard.  Also as usual, it was something in the area of reading one thousand and four pages, summarizing the pictures, and making a table of the fourteen thousand herbs described in those pages, their effects, their uses, and their antidotes.  

Severus had taken a seat next to Lily, and she pulled his sleeve a bit.

"You know, you'd make a much better Potions teacher.  Why don't you?"  
  


"I can't go up in front of the class and start teaching, Lily, for Heaven's sake!"

"I don't mean now, I mean later.  After Hogwarts.  Become a teacher here…the students would kiss your feet for depriving Cauldwell of a job."

"I don't want to teach Potions; I want to do Defense Against the Dark Arts."  
  


"Well, we'll see each other here, then," she smiled, flicking the page in search of the color of monkshood's almost nonexistent thorns.  

"Why so?"  

"Well, McGonagall wants me to teach here…just as a substitute, at first, but afterwards as a real teacher."

He grinned at her.  "You know, I just might seriously consider teaching here!"

Even tiny Professor Flitwick was giving the seventh years more work than ever before; they were taking their final graduation exam in March, which, the teachers seemed to believe, was merely two hours away, judging by their homework.  Professor McGonagall, the first time they entered her classroom that year, told them that she was expecting them to be able to transform their respective chairs into two cats; one a Siamese and one a tabby.  At the end of the lesson, only Lily was sitting lazily on her desk, flicking absent-mindedly at her chair, which was amusing her by separating into two cats that were growling at each other, and just as they were about to attack, she changed them back into the chair they formerly had been.  Some of the students were glaring at her; their chairs had additions like whiskers, two tails; one black and one a beige colour, pig snouts, and drawers.  How pig snouts had been added no one really wanted to know, but it certainly provided an entertaining spectacle.

James was now the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, as he informed her one night at dinner.  Nigel was gone; Miranda, Jacqueline, Anya, and Joseph had all graduated, and only James, Rebecca, and John were still on the team.  Still, to make up for that, most of the other teams had lost a few of their elements, and the captains were rushing their new team members through tactics and defenses and attacks three nights per week.  

This wasn't just any Quidditch Cup they were seeking to win; this was the thousandth anniversary of their school, and this was a greater honor than it usually was.  The Cup was to be larger than usual, with the names and positions of the different students engraved on the base of it.  Needless to say, James had fixed almost every fibre of his body on winning the Cup, even if it meant breaking someone's leg so that that person would stop jumping off of his broom when a Bludger hurtled towards him.  Well, almost.  Not even James would go quite that far.

One evening, Lily was sitting in the common room with a book, as usual, when the muddy Quidditch team trooped in.  It had been raining more than was usual lately, which meant that Filch was starting to give detentions to students for having smudges on their shoes.  

They had been running through the corridors, dodging Peeves and slipping noisily behind suits of armour to avoid the bad-tempered caretaker, and they all were breathless and panting by the time they fell inside the portrait hole (Codswalloping Columns).  Amused, Lily looked up; their scarlet Quidditch robes were splattered with dirt, twigs, and mud from falling off of their brooms and landing, hard, in puddles.

They left for the showers quickly, and soon only James remained in the common room; he was cleaner than the rest of his team, and the four boys had already locked the bathroom door.

"So," he sighed, letting himself fall onto the sofa next to Lily, "having fun?"

She smiled.  "You expect me to say no, don't you?"

"Well, not really," he shrugged.  "You're one of those strange people that enjoys studying until you have to glue their hair back on."

"Hum?"

"Well, when you get old, your hair falls out, doesn't it?"  
  


"I'm dying laughing," Lily said flatly.

"Oh, never mind.  I guess I'm not that funny."  
  


"You guessed right."

He smiled and stretched, accidentally poking her in the chest with his fist.  She winced, spinning around towards him quickly. 

"That hurt!"

He half-cringed, half-smiled.  "Oh—oops, sorry, Lil."

Suddenly, his eyes were fixed on the necklace that had become dislodged from underneath her robes.  He didn't stop staring until she placed a firm hand in front of his eyes.

"What are you staring at?"  
  


"You—you're still wearing that necklace…"  
  


"Brilliant, he is.  What about it?"

"Lily…"  He licked his lips, which had cracked a bit.  "That thing is…it's…"

"Dangerous.  I know.  You know me; do I care whether it is or not?"  
  


"Lily—have you been there lately?"  
  


"No," she answered curtly.  "Why?"

James shrugged.  "I think you ought to."

This caught her completely off her guard.  "[i]What[/i]?"

"If he's planning to move to England soon—you can try to stop him, can't you?"

In spite of herself, admiration filled her smile.  He didn't try anymore to keep her from doing anything; he recognized what she could and would do, and he encouraged her to do it…

"You really want me to try?"

He clapped her on the shoulder.  "If I didn't, would I have brought it up?"  Suddenly, he dropped his careless manner.  "It's not for me, Lil.  It's for England.  You told me that he wants to move here soon, and if he is all that you say and I know he is—we're in for it."

Lily stared into his eyes, but he was completely serious, and no jeering ray of laughter was twinkling in them.  She took a deep breath.

"James, I doubt that I can.  If not even Litharelen can change his mind…"

"You [i]can,[/i]" James stated firmly, so sure of himself that she didn't dare to tell him that she wouldn't be able to.

"All right."  The words were said, and she exhaled quickly.  "I'll very likely not be successful, James.  I don't think I'll be able to…" Her voice trailed off, and he caught at it.

"Would you care if I came with you?"

"[i]What?[/i]"  Lily, for the first time, was filled with fear for him.  What Tom would do to him if he still suspected James of delivering information to the Ministry she didn't know, but she did know that he would strike first and ask questions later.  "You [i]can't![/i]"  
  


"Why can't I?" he challenged. 

"It—it's Tom—what he might do to you—"

James raised his brows.  "I don't think I, of all people, should be worried.  The one who should be is standing right in front of me, arguing that I'm in danger."

"No, James—[i]please[/i]—don't, don't come!"

He frowned, realizing that she was terrified for him.  Moving towards her, he put his hands on her shoulders.  "Lily, is there something else you haven't told me?"  
  


He saw her eyes widen; though almost instantly they returned to normal.  "No.  No.  Stay here…please…"

"No." 

Desperately, not even thinking of the option of not going at all that night, Lily ducked, breaking his grip on her shoulders.  Vaulting across a table, she pulled out the necklace, and, without hesitating, dashed it against the fireplace's mantelpiece.  

The familiar spinning darkness surrounded her, and a lump sprang into her throat; one of relief, but also of vague disappointment she couldn't quite pin down.  The next moment, however, a strong arm wrapped around her waist, and as she hit the waves of the Alendoren Cove, her reassured and grateful regard was drowned, partly in terror, and partly—a smaller part—in thankfulness for having a friend with her.

Nevertheless, when she regained her balance—they had landed in water so close to the shore that it was barely a foot deep—Lily was whispering screams at him.

"You idiot!  I told you not to follow me!  Who knows what could happen to you down here?  You idiot, you prat, you bloody, mangled mess of intestines, you—you—" She was exhausted, and the most she could do was sink to her knees, burying her head in her hands.  "You [i]had[/i] to follow me, didn't you?"

He grinned at her, holding out his hands to help her up.  "I wouldn't let you do this alone, now, would I?"

"I don't know," she sighed.  "I don't know.  I just wish you would."

She started parting the waves as she walked towards the sands, but his hand on her arm restrained her, and she turned to face him.

"Lil?"

"Yes?"

"Why're you so worried—er—about me—you've never troubled yourself this much about anyone before, unless it was your mother…"

He half expected her to start crying, but her cheeks stayed completely dry, and she kept her composure.

"I don't know."  She swerved sharply, facing the open sea.  "I don't know."

He didn't pursue the topic; something dangerous and untouchable about her kept him at arm's length all the time they were walking to the cave that Tom lived in.

Before walking in. Lily inclined her head ever so slightly towards James.  "You're staying here.  I don't care how brave you feel—you're staying outside."

Her comportment didn't allow for a single protest from James, and she received none.  Lightly slipping inside the door, she left it open a crack.

Tom was sitting alone at a table, thinner, somehow, than the last time she remembered him, and with an open book in front of him.  He immediately leaped up when he heard Lily's footstep on the threshold; pulling out his wand, he pointed it at her, then relaxed as he recognized her.

"Lily; it's only you—good; heaven knows who else it might have been."

She smiled.  "Who else could have entered here?"  
  


"Oh—I don't know—" he evaded, running his hand through his dark hair, almost making it stand on end.  "I'm just rather stressed at the moment…"

Lily bit her lip, then dropped down on the floor next to his chair.  "Tom, you don't have to do this…"

His head snapped around to meet her eyes, and, with a sharp shock, she noticed the brief flash of red in his eyes.

"[i]I don't have to do this—this that is my revenge on the entire race that has wronged me and my fellows?[/i]  Lily, you don't know a damned thing.  My mother didn't die at birth, like I told you and Lith and everyone else she did—[i]my father murdered her.[/i]  My [i]father[/i] murdered my mother.  He meant to, I know he did.  She loved him more than anyone could ever love anyone, and he repulsed her when he found out what blood she bore.  It killed her.  She lost all will to live—she [i]wanted to die[/i]—and he knew what he was doing.  Stuck-up, rich snob—[i]I hate him, I [/i]hate[i] him![/i]"  His chest was heaving as he spilled his story to her, and she listened, as only she was capable of doing.

"They're all the same.  Muggles, all of them—no one at the orphanage could have been crueler.  They—that race—they [i]deserve to be wiped off of the face of the earth![/i]"

Breathing heavily and painfully as he drew air into his lungs, he started to shake; then Lily laid a soft hand on his shoulder, and his muscles relaxed; he was less tense than he had been in months.

"Tom, that's the way they see it.  If we choose their way of thinking, we are no better than they…and who are we to choose who lives and who dies?  We are humans, Tom, not gods…"

That moment was the critical one, Lily knew.  If he made up his mind now to go on with his intentions, he would never be shaken—[i]if only, if only![/i] she pleaded with her soul.  [i]If only![/i]

Just then, however, a slight crackling sound came to both their ears from outside.  Lily started, and Tom leaped up again, drew his wand, and within moments was slamming the door open.  His intake of breath and James' gasp told Lily what she had feared, and she ran desperately after Tom, who was glaring daggers with his wand pointed at a dark figure crouched next to a boulder.

As she ran closer, she saw that James already had several scratches on his face and robes; he had been dodging curses.

"Tom, [i]NO![/i]"

Tom swerved to meet her.  "What is this—this [i]thing, [/i]this [i]traitor[/i] doing here?  Lily, this scum has been blabbing to the Ministry of Magic—"

"Tom, [i]no[/i]; listen to me!  He hasn't; it was someone else, or else no one did—he swore to me that he 

didn't—"

"LILY, STOP PROTECTING THAT TRAITOR!  I TRUSTED HIM AGAINST MY BETTER JUDGEMENT—AND SEE HOW HE REPAID ME?  STEP ASIDE, YOU SILLY GIRL!"

Firmly, Lily stepped in front of Tom's wand, pushing it out of her way.  "Tom, for the love of Litharelen and your mother, [i]listen to me![/i]  He hasn't done a thing; he swore it to me; he hasn't told anyone, not even his closest friends, and they know everything about him!"

Tom didn't listen; for all her words mattered to him, she could have spat at a hole in the ground.  He jerked his wand towards James again, who stood up, refusing to face him on the ground.

Lily was quickly becoming aware of the dangerous person she was facing, and of his uncontrollable temper.  Slowly, she started backing up, until she bumped into James.

He thought more quickly than she did.  Making up his mind in an instant, he reached out for the pendant of the necklace, pushed her to the side of him, looking to Tom and to Lily as though he were refusing to let her face Tom instead of him, but before either of them could blink, he had hit the stone against the boulder beside which he had jerked Lily, and they were both whirling towards Hogwarts, both of them almost out of their wits.  James was hanging onto Lily for dear life, and she was frantically clutching his arm.  

They landed in the common room, three inches away from the fire.  Quickly, Lily somersaulted over the fender; and, exhausted, they let themselves lie full-length on the Gryffindor rug in front of the fireplace.

"Whew," James admitted.  "That did [i]not[/i] go down well." 

Lily raised herself up on her elbow.  "I would never have guessed.  [i]What,[/i] in the name of all evil, made you make that noise?"  
  


"What noise?" he defended himself.  "I moved my foot!"

"Oh, help me, Lord," Lily mumbled as she started hitting her head against the carpet.  "I told you that elf-nymphs have much better hearing than ordinary humans, and Tom is part elf-nymph…I [i]did[/i] tell you that, didn't I?"  
  


James nodded.  "You did…but  I didn't think…"  
  


"You didn't," she agreed.  "Let me look at where he got you—what curses did he use?"  
  


He shrugged.  "I don't know.  I've never heard of them before, though—it wasn't Avada Kedavra or the Cruciatus.  I know that much.  It didn't sound pleasant, so I was glad I've been on the Quidditch team for several years---hey, what're you doing?"  
  


She had knelt down next to him and pulled out the small phial made of the solidified litaleter.  Uncorking it, she let a dropful of the liquid inside pour onto her finger, which she ran over a large scratch on James' cheek and a burn on his arm.

"What's that?"  
  


"It's something Tom gave me for Christmas in—fifth year, I think.  It should help heal pretty well—"  
  


She stopped.  The effect on the burn on his arm was more visible than on the scratch; almost like a zipper, the sound skin kept widening, shrinking the red mark till it vanished, which happened in a surprisingly small amount of seconds.

"Okay.  It [i]does[/i] heal pretty well.  Let me see your hand—did you scrape that or did Tom?"

He shook his hand out of her grasp.  "I don't think you understand the big picture—That Lord Voldemort, that you call Tom—he's going to be moving on to England now."

Lily pushed a strand of matted hair out of her eyes.  "Of course.  You didn't think that I'd forget that, did you?"  
  


"No," he admitted.  "That's why I was so surprised when you didn't look as if it had bothered you."

She gave a short laugh.  "I never lose control if I can help it."

The next morning, both of them had to be shaken awake; Lily by Lora, who had been quartered in a different dormitory, and James by the combined efforts, ice, and water balloons of Sirius, Remus, and Peter.  Lily couldn't help suppressing a laugh as she saw his face as he glared at his friends at breakfast.

Every day, in the Daily Prophet reports, something was printed in the bottom right-hand corner of the front page about a 'shadow in the East,' which was warning wizards to be careful about their chosen vacation spot and informing readers about the Ministry's actions.  What they hadn't revealed yet, Lily noticed, was that he was slowly growing stronger and planning to move his people to England.  All that she could make out from the papers was that he was an outcast that attacked everyone that came too close—not a word was said about anything else.

James was more nervous than usual; he jumped when someone spoke to him, and once he had drawn his wand on an unsuspecting first year that had tugged on his sleeve to ask him the way to the nearest bathroom.  Naturally, Sirius, Serena, Remus, and Peter had noticed that something was wrong, but James kept tight shut about everything that had to do with Lily or Tom, and, much to the chagrin of his friends, he refused to say anything.  

Severus had cast several glances at Lily's paler face and at his edginess and assumed something that was, as usual, quite off the mark, but he didn't say anything, remembering the time when he had assumed something and had nearly been killed as a result of it.  Lily's voice still chimed in his head when it was quiet; the few sentences about being in James' debt…He squirmed almost every time he thought of it—who on earth would want to be beholden to James Potter, of all people?

Slytherin slaughtered Hufflepuff in the first Quidditch match of the season; as they had lost their captain, the Hufflepuff team was terribly coordinated, and their moves were jerky and badly practiced.  The game would have been won easily if the winner was also ordained by gaining two hundred points before the other team, but as the Snitch was flitting around and especially hard to find, it lasted longer.

Halloween was coming up quickly; after the match, time seemed to fly by.  This Halloween feast was to be even more grand and decorative than other years; after all, it was the one thousandth year of Hogwarts' existence.  An amazing amount of butterbeer had been ordered from the Three Broomsticks, as James and Sirius found out.  

They had sneaked into Hogsmeade for some candy, and Sirius had suggested that they stop by the post office and send a letter to his parents, who were asking him what his friends wanted for Christmas, as they planned to go to the Netherlands and to Italy.  After picking out a hooting little owl to send off with his message, James had decided that he was thirsty, so they slipped over to the Three Broomsticks.

Behind the counter, a man was stacking crates and crates of butterbeer bottles, and the boys heard her shout to Madam Rosmerta, "Where'd you want these things? You usually don't get these many."

"No," Madam Rosmerta called back; "these are for that Hogwarts Halloween thing; Albus's going all out this year."

"Mighta heard something about that.  So where do you want these," the man asked, trying to keep a crate from falling on the floor.

Naturally, the boys, on their return, had spread the information all around the common room, and from there it took hardly any time before the school knew that they were to be served something other than pumpkin juice.  However, more efforts to find out what their entertainment was to be didn't turn out well; the gamekeeper, Hagrid, was pushing the students away from his backyard almost viciously, and he had handed James and Sirius two detention each for trying to blast through the fence he had put up.  

Still, it was rather common knowledge that there were going to be dishes of truffles and foie gras, which the house-elves were strictly instructed to keep away from the students.  James had found out through his friendship with Minky.  Lily finally found out why he was on such good terms with her; one of his house-elves had had a small daughter, but the mother had been sacked as a result of gossiping about her family to several other families, and the small baby house-elf had been given to Professor Dumbledore to take care of; he was especially good with house-elves, and the small girl wasn't eating well.  Within a few weeks, however, she had been handed over to the care of a motherly Hogwarts house-elf, and she was doing much better.  When James came to Hogwarts, she took to him especially, as she came from his home, and she was devoted to him.

James had told Lily this one afternoon, when the rain was pelting the windows and thunder was crackling almost directly above the castle.  She had asked why Minky liked him so much, and he had given her the history of the small castle servant.

The evening before Halloween, the team was, for once, not practicing on the field; it was raining worse than the standard storms did; the ceiling in the Great Hall was deep indigo and black, with occasional bolts of lightning tearing across it.  They were stretched on the rug in the common room, jibbering excitedly about tomorrow's feast.  The decorations were already being set aside in a room off to the side of the teacher's table, though several peeks inside had only revealed glimpses of black and orange smudges.  

Remus was talking to Sirius about something, and Lily was playing chess with Peter, who was getting much better at it, though James' help might have accounted for his improvement.

"No, Peter, not the knight; don't you see her rook?"

Peter frowned.  "What rook?  Oh, right—that one."  He moved his knight back, which made Lily grimace; if James hadn't intervened, the game would have been hers; instead, he took one of her pawns.  "Move."  
  


"Oh, fine, fine.  I officially hate you, Potter," she grinned.

"Again?" he groaned, rolling his eyes in false agony.  "Oh, no—the rejection, the pain!"

"Shut up," she told him good-humouredly, giving him a light punch in the arm.  Biting her lower lip, she moved her bishop diagonally three spaces.  "Check."  
James frowned.  "I'd hoped you wouldn't see that.  Okay, Peter, the next thing you want to move is—oh, hi, Serena."

The girl had ambled over from the fireside, where she had been tossing her hair behind her back affectedly for the benefit of the seventh year Quidditch team members.  Now, however, she let herself down next to James, who offered her the chair he was sitting on.

"Here—I can drag that footstool over."

"Thanks," she beamed.  "So, how's the game going?"

"Very badly," Lily snapped peevishly.  

They stared at her in surprise.  Lily didn't just lose her temper like that; they were wondering what had happened in five seconds to make her that angry.

They were obviously expecting her to explain.  She bit her lip again; she shouldn't have let herself fly off the handle like that.  She didn't know why she had, either—it was something about the pair in front of her that almost drove her wild with frustration, and she didn't know why they got under her skin so much. 

"Never mind."  She pushed her chair back and stood, leaving the common room and ignoring the puzzled 

"Lily!  Hey, Lil!  What'd we do?"s from the chess table.

She was sitting in her bed with the curtains drawn when the rest of her dormmates entered, changed out of their robes, and got into their respective beds after several whispered conversations.  Three hours later, she was still sitting bolt upright, tailor-style, eyes wide open, and thinking.

"Why did I lose control like that?  I never really minded before…well, I was annoyed, but that's all I was."  

She shifted her foot and tucked it underneath her. 

"I hate this…"

Outside, the sliver of moon shone luminously into the circular dormitory, and, amongst the noise of the Owlery, Lily could discern a raven's caw.

The next morning, she was a bit quieter than she normally was, but that was almost expected from James and Peter, who still didn't know what was going on.  Lily had stayed up all night, unable to fall asleep; she had been reflecting on the past evening.

The Great Hall hadn't been decorated yet when they entered it for breakfast; they could hear the pipsqueaks of bats coming from the room off of the teacher's table if they listened closely, but otherwise nothing came to light to show that there would shortly be a large Halloween feast in the chamber.

Lily perked up a little in Anatomy of Magical Creatures; they were studying the vampire and the reasons that it had a strong desire for blood.  Professor Maar told them he would be bringing in a specimen for them to study and learn about, and she was looking forward to that.  Several of the girls in the classroom let out disgusted "Eurgh, we're going to be messing around with a dead vampire?"s, and they were sharply reminded that they had volunteered to participate in this course and that it was not required for their graduation from Hogwarts.

Professor Dorvan had informed them that they were to be learning about curses barely known throughout the wizarding world but that were quite popular at one point in history.  They weren't as well known as the Unforgivable Curses, so no one was extremely familiar with them, but they were just as dangerous, having to do with the control of the mind, almost like the Imperious Curse, but these controlled different aspects of a person and were harder to break; one controlled speech, one sight, one the power to make decisions…

Sirius kept shooting odd glances at her; James had obviously told her about what had happened that night at the chess table.  She didn't like the funny gleam in his eyes that seemed to say that he knew something that she either didn't know about herself or didn't want anyone else knowing.  Either way, it wasn't too good for her.

Lora stopped her frequent visits to Gryffindor Tower; one of the Slytherin prefects had followed her through the house-elf corridor she used, and he had taken fifty points each from Ravenclaw and Gryffindor.  Lily only saw her friend during some classes and at meals in the Great Hall; Lora was sitting with Sheila and her friends now, who, she revealed with the air of someone pulling a cadaver out of a paper bag, weren't that bad to be around.  Still, she could be found in the hospital wing quite a bit on evenings with Madam Pomfrey, who was rather peeved that the headache medicines she had dosed Lora with hadn't proven themselves so far.

The afternoon before the Halloween feast, their classes had been canceled; the teachers were going to be busy in the Great Hall.  Lily was sitting in an armchair, scribbling busily away at a roll of parchment held down with several Arithmancy and Transfiguration books, when James tapped her on the shoulder.

She spun around.  "Yes?"

"We're supposed to go down to the Great Hall…you know, help decorate.  Something about being Head Boy and Girl," he added in answer to the question on her face.

"Oh."  Lily rolled up her essay, then let out an exclamation of exasperation as she realized that the wet ink had smeared every single word she had written for the last ten inches.  "Oh!  Goodness, that just had to happen, didn't it?  I should really start thinking before I do things…"

James coughed.  "You need help?"

"No," she waved absent-mindedly,"—no, I'm fine…okay.  I'll be right down."

She swept her books off of the table with one neat motion, saved the ink bottle from hitting the floor with a rapid charm, and drifted slowly out of the common room.

When the portrait had shut behind them, James ventured a question.

"Hey—Lil—I wanted to ask you something."

"I am [i]not[/i] going to let you copy my Transfiguration homework."

"No, no—it's nothing like that.  It's just—Lily—" 

He had been biting his lip nervously ever since he began talking, and, still edgy about the topic of conversation he had picked, he stopped, as did she.

"Why did you storm out of the common room like that?"

It was her turn to look away.  For several seconds, while her brain was whirlstorming frantically, she busied herself with studying the structure of afternoon clouds.

"I don't like Serena much; that's all.  She annoys me terribly, and I don't like being around her."  
  


"She never used to bother you that much before."  
  


"Before what?"  
  


"Oh, just—before," he ended lamely, waving his hand around for emphasis.  "Before—er—well, [i]before.[/i]"

"I see."  She eyed him warily.  "That explains absolutely everything."

"Sorry," he apologized.  "I just don't know…you didn't mind her much in fifth year…"

Lily shrugged and resumed walking.  "That was fifth year."  
  


It was his turn to say "I see" skeptically, and he said it.

She didn't answer; just kept walking down the hallway, fixedly ignoring a sighing mermaid in a picture, chained to a wall, singing something about young love and its fatalities.

"Hey—Lil—" He caught up with her again.  "You're getting much harder to talk to lately…is anything wrong?"  
  


"No," she said firmly.  "No."

"I just mean that I'd like to talk to you more.  You're a wonderful person; you know that, don't you?"

"No," Lily said again, and this time she sounded as if the next person to give her a compliment like that would have his tongue ripped out by the roots and shoved into one ear and out of his nose.  James cleaned his nails nervously with his teeth.

Then, suddenly, he straightened, with a funny lopsided grin on his face.  "Lil?"  
  


"Yes?"  If words could freeze steam, hers would have done it.  
  


"Lil, you'd better start talking to me.  I paid for those dress robes, didn't I?"

She swung around, but at the sight of his grin she couldn't say anything.  Lily couldn't help it; she had to smile, too.

"Oh, you little—"

His grin widened, and he stuck out his hand.  "Hey—let's make this fair.  You talk to me, I'll stop pestering you about Tom.  Okay?"

Her face clouded over a bit, which was what he had expected to see; he had thought that that was what she had been checking the Daily Prophets for.  Still, she shook his hand.

"Deal."

"Can I have a hug?"  Trying to imitate the small pout Lily's mouth had been drawn in, he held his arms open wide like a child of three, eyes the size of saucers.  Lily couldn't help but laugh.

"Oh, okay, okay, fine!"  She hugged him, but, with a mischievous grin she couldn't see, he grasped her around the waist, lifted her up above his head, spinning her around as fast as he could, she whispering wildly, "James Potter, let me [i]down![/i]"

He grinned at her, as her long hair started to fall in both their faces and hit the portraits hanging on the walls.  When he started to get slightly dizzy, he swung her down, letting her lean against the banister of a staircase; he next to her, one arm on either side.

"You—you—you!" she breathed, trying fruitlessly to repress a grin.

"Me," he stated.  "Enjoy that?"  
  


"I'm extremely dizzy.  Of course!"  She swept her hair off to the side, but then whipped her head back around to face him.  "[i]Don't [/i]do that again."

"I promise!" he beamed, eyes twinkling.  She breathed again.

"At least, not within the next hour," James added, grinning.

Her face fell in mock dismay, but both of them dissolved in laughter moments later.


	59. Litharelen

Lily had more fun that afternoon than she had had in a long time, what with putting up the decorations around the Great Hall and helping tiny Professor Flitwick out of the bag of streamers he had buried himself in.  It took them a good five minutes to find him, and he was spitting out bits of thread and cloth when they dug him out, laughing almost hysterically, and even strict Professor McGonagall was trying to repress a smile.

Lily had fun levitating the confetti.  She made the orange and black bits of paper shaped in characters spelling HOGWARTS and 1000 zoom around maniacally between the bats and above them, occasionally dropping onto the tables in miniature tornadoes.  The Hogwarts crest, in black and orange, hung from banners draped all over the Great Hall, and silky tassels fell from their edges.  The gamekeeper, Hagrid, finally made it into the entrance hall with the surprise he had been hiding behind his fence—four giant pumpkins to set at each corner of  the Hall.  Roughly, five men could sit down and have a game of cards inside one; they were that big.  They also needed a regular fire inside them instead of only candles, but the design Lily got to carve on them of Hogwarts made it worth the dusty fire-building job.

James also found out how much fun it couldn't be to enchant one thousand bats so that they couldn't use the restroom for twelve hours.  He had to catch each one, perform the charm, and let it fly out of the room off of the teacher's table without letting the others out, but thankfully for him, Lily was in charge of making the bats flutter three feet above the table and nowhere else, say, the girls' showers.

Smaller jack-o-lanterns were placed along the long tables at intervals, and the usually white linen tablecloths had been changed to a cottony cream, and were sprinkled with the same orange and black confetti that was crazily rocketing around three feet above their heads.  Tapered beeswax candles were placed in golden candlesticks all down the center of the tables, and the ceiling was quickly turning a dusky  blue-grey, shot with good-tempered dark pink and gold.

The students swarmed into the Great Hall just as Lily and Professor Dorvan finished packing away the boxes of left-over decorations and the rest of the teachers completed the sweeping up of pumpkin insides, streamer remains, and confetti scraps.  Chattering and buzzing with renewed energy, everyone slid into their seats, grasping excitedly at the roasted pumpkin seeds on the tables.

Lily reached for a handful herself; she and Petunia had always loved those when they were younger and her mother had made them around Halloween.  A sad smile spread over her face as she remembered—but then, emphatically, she shook it out of her head.  She [i]wouldn't[/i] remember her mother; she'd only start crying, and who needed to start crying in the middle of a feast?

It was a wonderful evening; James and Sirius had refrained from slamming bowls of custard in other people's faces, the butterbeer wasn't salted and boiling hot, as it had been when the teachers had asked for refreshment while they were decorating, there were no shredded socks in the steaks, and the peas weren't stuck together with honey.  Peeves had discovered that the last three items ticked more than everyone in the Great Hall off, so he was currently banned from the entire floor surrounding the kitchens.

The only thing Lily could have complained about was Serena.  She was sitting next to her, and it was getting to be rather disgusting to have to push Serena's hair away from her plate.  The blonde was currently using her sheet of hair as a curtain between Lily and James, who was sitting on her other side, and whom she was engaging in conversation.  Lily wouldn't have minded talking to him at all—they had been on such good terms when they were alone with the teachers, and now that Serena was here, he was only talking to her.  
[i]Well, that's what he's happy doing,[/i] Lily thought; [i]if he likes her—heck, even if he loves her, which, at his age, I highly doubt, but if he does, then whatever makes him happy is all right with me.  I suppose.  He was nice enough to buy me dress robes, and I'm quite thankful for that, but he'd have done the same thing for his sister, if he had one.  I'm not to go around assuming and imagining things—he's practically engaged to Serena already, so there's no chance of an elopement.[/i]

Lily slammed her fist against her stomach moments after those thoughts ran through her head—an[i] elopement?[/i]  Why should she care—why was she [i]thinking[/i] that?

"Lily, you're sick," she mumbled to herself before downing another bottle of butterbeer.  "Completely batty.  Hospital wing.  Immediately."

And, right on cue, her head fell onto her fist.  Sirius looked over at her.  

"Lily, you all right?"

"Fine, fine, couldn't be better," she mumbled.  "I [i]hate[/i] treacle," Lily groaned by way of an excuse.

"Oh—stomachache—you need to go to the hospital wing?  I can get you there—"

"No," Lily groaned firmly, "I don't want to drink another bowl of that hospital wing soup.  It's worse than treacle."

Lora, seated at the Ravenclaw table, heard her and leaned over.  "If you've got anything to say against the treacle tart, it'd better not be said in my presence!"

"[i]I—don't—like—treacle—[/i]" Lily garbled as she slammed her palm on the table to every word.

She went to bed early that night with a stomachache as an excuse; what she honestly was doing was sitting in bed, listening to the wind rustle and whistle through the clouds, thinking. James [i]was[/i] a friend to her…and Eva and Lora were, too…she and Amanda were growing apart, and Abigail and she never really were all that close…but none of them understood her, none of them had an unmanageable craving for danger and the allure of quick heartbeats—they were all happy here, and they were content, penned up inside these castle walls…

Lily wasn't doing any better than she had been the night she stormed out of the common room.  Something closely resembling turmoil was building up inside her, and she hadn't any idea what it was dealing with; why it was there, and what was happening to make it appear.  Every time someone tripped behind her and sent their books skittering all over the floor, her friends saw her start at the unexpected noise and grasp at her throat or at some sort of lump beneath her robes.  She sank into several trick steps several times; something that had hardly ever happened before, as she habitually paid attention to where she was putting her feet.  

Lily had stopped stealing glances at Eva's newspaper; she had taken out a subscription to the Daily Prophet.  Every morning at breakfast found her scanning the heavy pile of parchment and ink, looking for something.  She never did find it, her friends assumed, for she laid the paper down next to her plate after she had finished rifling through it, sighing almost inaudibly as it plopped onto the tablecloth.

She wasn't talking to many people anymore.  The only ones that were getting through to her were Eva and Sirius; she hardly saw anyone else.  Severus had tried sending her owls, but she never replied.  He didn't see her outside of classes, anyway—that is, besides meals, and then they were separated by the whole width of the Great Hall.  He was getting more than a little worried; he cared about her, and he knew something was going on that she wasn't telling anyone.

Lily, on her part, hated every single moment she spent around people.  She would wake up at two in the morning, with the moonlight shafts falling on her face; her shadow would glide behind her to the window of their dormitory, where it stayed for hours.  A restless tigress awakened in her brain and her heart every time she saw the full, endless expanse of sky; something made her want to ride out into a never-ending field of grass, seated on a midnight-colored charger, with the wind rushing in her ears and her hair streaming behind her.  The excitement for adventure and life was being repressed horribly by the stone walls she saw day after day, and, slowly, she started to grow thinner with frustration.

Tom was doing all right, as she had found out from the Daily Prophets.  They informed the reader that several potentially Dark wizards had been incarcerated after being found while brewing illegal potions and performing forbidden spells on animals, but that they were found to be working for someone; the identity of whom was unknown.  His plans were going as expected, then, and he hadn't been captured…yet.

One afternoon, Lily was dragging one of the huge, spoiling pumpkins to a sort of compost heap inside the Forbidden Forest, where a funny sort of unidentified dark green bugs fed on spoiled food, turning it into a better fertilizer than anything store-bought.  The sky was looming dangerously grey, and several droplets were falling; soon, thunder started to rumble over the castle.  Lily was trying her best to hurry, but there was a lot to do, and she wasn't even half done.

Grunting exhaustedly, she tripped over a tree root and went flying, landing on her elbows.  Before she could get to her feet, however, someone took her arm.

She spit some hair that had come out of a plait out of her mouth.  "James?"

"I was asked by McGonagall to help.  You look like you could use it."  
  


For once, Lily didn't give a smart reply.  Thankfully, she got to her feet; panting, she leaned on his arm.

"Thanks. I could use it."  
  


"Sure," he agreed cheerfully.  "Let's get this done before the rain really hits—now, where does this go?"

"In here," she nodded, pointing at a largeish hole in the ground that was already half-full with the kitchens' scraps.  Together, they pushed the large pumpkin inside, muscles and backs straining; on both their foreheads, a sweat was breaking as rain fell on their heads--and finally, they watched the pumpkin crash against a piece of wood with satisfaction.

Lily turned around.  "Two down, two to go."

He smiled.  "You really do seem to like doing this, don't you?"  
  


"No," she shrugged, "I want to get it out of the way."

"Makes sense," James agreed.  "Hagrid's hut, right?"

"Mm," she nodded.

They were rolling the fourth one to the heap when they hit an unexpected capsized tree three feet in diameter that had crashed across their path, blocking their way.  Both of them moaned together as they saw the size of it.

"This won't be pleasant," Lily remarked.  Her by-now auburn hair was soaking wet; loose curls were plastered to her face and neck, while James' usually only very messy hair was now almost sticking straight up, what with the sweat, dusty leaves, and rain that had combined along with his fingers that he had been frequently running through it.

"You're telling me," he nodded.  "Let's see if we can just push this thing over that tree.  You think we can?"  
  


"If you can try, you can do anything," Lily sighed philosophically.  "Except slamming shut a revolving door at a department store."

James grinned at her; the funny lopsided grin.  "You're not inspiring much confidence."

"I didn't intend to.  Come on; let's push this thing over—hang on."  She looked down; her necklace was hanging out, and it had been doing so constantly; every time she pushed it inside her robes, it fell back out.  "I'm taking this off—hang on."  She suited the action to the word; exhaustedly, she stripped the hair off of her face and neck along with the chain.  "Much better.  Do you have a pocket?"

James nodded absently.  "Hand it over—I'll keep it for you."

She slumped over to him; tiredly, she was about to hand it to him, when she slipped on a wet pile of soft pumpkin innards, tripped forwards, and fell right onto James, who, startled, had only time to grab her around the waist before both of them hit the ground.  However, Lily's hand—the one in which her necklace had been clasped—hit a sharp rock, and as she drew her knuckles back with an exclamation of pain, the two of them found themselves spinning in familiar darkness bearing absolutely no resemblance to the Forbidden Forest.  For one thing, it wasn't raining.

Shaken, the two of them picked themselves up from the waist-high mass of water they had landed in.  Both of them knew where they were, though they were hoping they weren't where they thought they were.

James slowly turned his head to look at Lily.  "Lil?"

"It's no use," she sighed; "I know what you're thinking.  We're not staying here; hand me the necklace."

His eyes dilated.  "What necklace?"  
  


She swerved to meet him.  "[i]What?[/i]"

"Didn't you have it?"

"I did—but I thought you had it—how else could we get all the way to here?"  
  


"You're asking me?"

"Yes, I'm asking you!"

He sighed, held out a hand to her, and helped her out of the water.  "I don't think fighting'll be any use.  It's somewhere in the Forbidden Forest, and unless you know how to Apparate and can teach me to do so within the next five minutes, we're going to have a long walk back.  Where is this place, Albania, I think you said?"

"A long walk back," she agreed.  "But we're staying out of Tom's way."

James sighed.  "I hate Hagrid's pumpkins."

Lily laughed as she stepped over a small rock.  "They were messy, weren't they?"  

They were making for the forest that bordered the beach, and the instant Lily dissolved into the trees, she knew something was wrong.  Well, maybe not wrong—but [i]different.[/i]  Noisy.  The woods felt…well—[i]crowded.[/i]

"James—hold on.  I'll be back."  
  


Stubbornly, he followed her.  "Nope.  Not leaving you alone."

She sighed.  "James—"

"'If you don't learn to live with danger, you don't learn to live at all.'  By Lily Evans."

"Yeah, well, this isn't danger.  This is suicide."

He grunted.  

"Just stay here.  No moving of muscles.  Any muscles.  Do not smile."

"Yes, sir," he shot back, snapping to attention.  Without bothering to make a comment, Lily vanished towards the creaking leaves and branches; the whisperings and the dim sparks.

Quite unexpectedly, she emerged in a clearing filled with hundreds of wizards in dark robes; they were sitting around Tom, who was standing up, twirling his wand, and explaining something.  Litharelen was sitting off to the side, curled up, her long, silver hair covering her gown like a cloak.

Lily stepped forward just as the Death Eaters stood up and dispersed to smaller groups; Tom spotted her immediately.  Instantly, he was by her side.

"Lily!  How've you been--we've not seen you for a long time here…say, did that Ministry rat get you into any trouble?  I know I was harsh to you last time you were here—well, did you get into any trouble?"

Lily shook her head.  "No."

"Good."  He grinned, relieved.  "Well—I wanted to talk to you about something else.  It goes down to this.  I need a spy near Dumbledore, in Hogwarts, and you've been offered a job there--would you be willing?"

Something was revolving inside her.  She had always wanted to live an adventurous, exciting life, and this was what Tom was offering her.  A life at which her heart could beat frantically at the danger, and relax for only millisecondsbefore being awakened again; the feel of wind whipping her face flowed past her again.  But then, her mind flew to her family.

They were Muggles.  She would probably end up aiding in their murders—she couldn't, no matter how much she hated their ways of thinking.  Slowly, Lily shook her head.

"Tom, I can't."  
  


He was completely disconcerted.  "You [i]can't[/i]?"

"No.  No.  Please understand.  Please.  I—er—I've got friends that are Muggles; it's impossible for me to do this.  I couldn't make myself—and I'd fail you."

He waved that aside.  "Lily, you can train yourself so that doesn't matter!  This—this is adventure, riches, danger—you've always told me this is what you dreamed of!"

"No."  She squared her shoulders more firmly.  "Tom, no.  I don't want anything to do with your moves in England.  I quit.  I don't care if you can't quit—I just did.  I never joined your ranks; I was a sort of friend to you.  I won't, Tom—I won't."  She stepped back, at the finish of the calm speech she knew could cost her her life; still, she remained as cool as if she had just informed him that ten potato pancakes wouldn't be enough for thirteen people.

He eyed her quizzically.  "Lily, are you feeling all right?"  No trace of anger convulsed his features, and Lily was surprised. 

"I'm fine.  But [i]do you understand, Tom?[/i]  I'm through, I'm done with this!  I quit.  I've had enough.  Understand?  I don't care if you don't; I'll make you.  You'd better understand—[i]My Lord.[/i]"

He closed his eyes.  This sixteen-year-old would be a valuable ally—but if he said anything rash, any hope of making her join his ranks was out of the question.  He'd have to approach her later, maybe a month or so in the future.  Then—then, after the stuffy life as a citizen--

"I understand.  You aren't forced to come with me."

She met his eyes, startled.  'You're not angry; you're not anything?"

"I'm quite disappointed; you're a valuable, smart girl, yes.  You'd be useful.  Very."

"I don't want to be."

He sighed.  "Then that's all there is to it."

Lily was more than disconcerted; she was amazed.  This wasn't like Tom; the Tom Riddle she knew would have made a gigantic fuss ending in a temper tantrum involving either the Cruciatus or the Killing Curse.  But then her gaze fell on Litharelen, and she thought she knew why.

"Are you this lenient on me because I saved Lith back in fourth or fifth year?"  
  


He turned rather pale; pale for him, that is.  "Partly—Lily, this is in all honesty—I'm terribly in your debt.  I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't been there that day…"

He spun around.  Some of the Death Eaters were running; a faint sound of voices reached his ears.  Tom instantly whipped his wand out, pulled Litharelen to her feet, and backed into the darkness.  On her part, Lily faded into the shadows behind her, almost frantic with worry.  [i]What was wrong?[/i]

She found out soon; James had grasped her arm and pulled her ear towards his mouth.  "The Ministry's here—those Death Eaters are outnumbered at least ten to one."

"[i]What?[/i]"  Face pale, she gasped at his words.

"Don't do anything stupid!" he warned her; but too late, Lily had already left for the now maniacally dangerous and murderous clearing.

Tom and Litharelen were cornered next to a smallish cliff by seven Ministry members; Tom, a nasty scowl knitting his eyebrows, was glaring at his enemies.  Then, without warning, he attacked.

"[i]AVADA KEDAVRA![/i]"

Two Ministry members fell to the floor; the green light flashing out of each end of Tom's wand had killed them both.  It was the signal for the Ministry; they could go ahead and kill him; he had killed some of them.

All of them removed their wands from Litharelen and pointed them at Tom, who was ready for them.  At the same split second, exactly the same two words burst from each of the five wizards' lips, the [i]Avada Kedavra[/i] that had killed many before them.

Something flashed; something white and silver flew through the air; an unexpected figure dashed towards the green beams of light.  Litharelen.

Lily drew in a strangled breath of air quickly; her eyes couldn't be functioning properly—something was wrong—Litharelen was all right; she was alive, nothing had happened—

The Ministry wizards were stunned.  Nothing had prepared them for this; and, on his part, Tom was standing underneath the pillars of his crumbling and crashing world.  

The limp, pale form fell into his arms; her fingers let go of the hold they had taken around his neck.  Trailing on the ground, the silvery hair cloaked her face and his knees as everything started to sink in to his mind…Litharelen was gone…First one, then three, then streams of tears flooded his eyes and fell onto her moonlight gown and skin…onto the glazed, formerly dark green eyes with the mist flooding them…the mist that had died, that would never again flare in love, anger, frustration…Litharelen was dead.

All this had taken barely three seconds; the tears of rage and loss had stopped almost as soon as Tom raised his head again, this time in pure hatred and anger towards the Ministry wizards.  He gently let Litharelen's body fall to the ground, and, as he raised his wand, boundless fear entered the hearts of his opponents—

His eyes flared a frightening scarlet; it was but the work of a moment to lay his fiancée's killers at his feet, lifeless.  Heaving with grief, he let himself glare around the clearing.

Lily realized the mistake, the deadly error, she had made.  Too late, she pushed James into the forest behind them; Tom had assumed the worst, that James had led the Ministry to him, and in his uncontrollable rage, he was worse than deadly.  

For once, James didn't hesitate.  He broke through one of the bushes ahead of them and streaked for the shore—anywhere, [i]anywhere[/i], only to get away from Tom…

Thus began the wildest chase of their lives; following them was death; in front of them was the open wildness of the cove.  Dodging behind every sand-dune only twelve inches high, they cleared two hundred yards in moments; yet Tom was gaining on them.  They were avoiding every root and rock that might trip them; they were dashing over the sands madly, panting, yet not daring to stop, now leaping over the edge of a boulder, now ducking behind a small tree, now climbing one of the steepest hills they had yet encountered in their lives.

Never before had Lily wished for the necklace with such an intensity—she had brought James to his death—he would die, and it was all because of her!  He would die, just like Litharelen; she'd never be able to meet his eyes again—

Tom was only two hundred feet behind them when they reached the top of a cliff—a cliff that reached five hundred feet over a maelstrom of raging waves.  They couldn't turn back—there was no way, not without running into Tom's arms.  Doomed, they stared at each other.

"I'm pulling a Litharelen," Lily told him sternly, "if Tom runs up here.  This is my fault…"

"It is [i]not,[/i]" James contradicted; "and don't you dare blame yourself.  We'll have to jump off of here, then…if we don't want to be killed and/or tortured by him."

Both of their gazes were drawn irrecoverably to the crashing waves below them, and, with an effort, James looked back up.

"Lily," he shouted over the sharply whistling wind, "if we get out of this, I'll never again doubt the power of miracles."

"[i]Miracles?[/i]"  Lily laughed, terrified, but the next moment she was almost thrown off of the edge of the cliff as a figure appeared between both of them amidst the fait flashes of green light that Tom was shooting at them—a figure they both knew, and the one they least expected to see.

"[i[Lora[/i]?!" both of them gasped.

It [i]was[/i] Lora, grinning, yet a bit unnerved, she stared around them, holding Lily's necklace in her hands.  "What [i]is[/i] this place?"  
  


"No time," Lily gasped; "hand me that!"

She didn't wait for an answer; simply snatched the necklace out of Lora's hands and hit it against James watch; holding onto each other so tightly their fingers were turning white, they were swept off in the relieving, safer, rescuing storm of darkness.  

The last thing that was on their mind was the rather disgusting environment they landed in; well, at least, it wasn't on Lily and James' minds.  Lora, on her part, expressed her disgust of sitting in mushy pumpkin goo and lemon rinds and squash rests and such by the mere expression on her face.

Lily and James had collapsed next to each other; they had let go of each other's wrists, but they were still breathing quickly, panting with their chase and the danger they had just escaped—Lily was still breathless at the sight of her friend dying in front of her.  Like a child, she had buried her head in his chest, crying noiseless tears.

Lora broke the spell of relief that had wound its way over them by a loud, hacking cough.

"What was that all about?"

Exhausted, James tried to sit up but found he couldn't; he was too weak.  "Tell—you—later—" he managed, before falling back down and closing his eyes.

Fifteen minutes later, Lily had cried out all her tears; she was still hiccupping gently, but the waterfalls had ceased to flow from her eyes.  Their strength was returning, and they were explaining in intervals to Lora what had happened there—and the story behind it.  She had informed them that she had a right to know, since she had dome something in the nature of save their skins, and they hadn't objected.  She was right—if it hadn't been for her, they would have been lying at the foot of the cliff, broken and battered to bits.

When they had finished their story, Lora was glaring daggers at them--well, mostly at Lily.

"You mean that, ever since third year, you've been helping out a criminal whose followers killed my parents?"

James flinched; he stole a glance at Lily, whose control had completely returned.  "That's a rather harsh way of putting it, isn't it?"  
  


"No."  Lora folded her arms.  "Lily, how could you?"  
  


Lily had an edge to her jaw that James had hardly ever seen before; she only set her mouth like this when she was extremely angry.

"I am not responsible to you for my actions."

"Oh, you're not?  For all I know, [i]you[/i] killed them!"  

James' eyes widened.  Holding out his arms, he split the two girls apart.  "Hold on!"

They glared at him, and he quickly went on.  "This is useless.  Lora, you idiot, you know Lily didn't kill your parents, and, for Pete's sake, Lily, don't be so offended.  We've got bigger stuff to worry about."

"Like what?" Lora asked flatly.  

"Like the fact that Lord Voldemort is shortly going to be in England."

"Oh."  Lora sat back on her heels.  "I see."

"Exactly.  Good.  Now, for Christ's sake, stop jumping on Lil like that—she's just lost one of her friends, okay?  One of her friends was murdered.  Don't mess with her too much, okay?"

Lora sighed.  "Okay."  She stuck a hand out towards Lily. "I'm sorry about the junk I said about my parents.  I know you better."

Rather unwillingly, Lily shook the hand in front of her.

"Good," James said, sounding relieved.  "We'd better go back and get cleaned up, then.  It's still raining bats and mice.  Lora—come to think of it, how did you get to us?"

Lora shrugged.  "McGonagall told me to get you two out of the rain when I was leaving Professor Flitwick's office, so I went outside.  You two weren't there, but there was that odd necklace on the ground.  I picked it up," she related, "and then, owing to my natural grace, slipped on this pumpkin mess.  Next thing I knew, I was there—and the second thing I knew, I was here.  And I'm still here."

"We noticed," Lily said dryly.

James sighed.  "Well, we'd better get cleaned up—Lora!" he added quickly; he'd forgotten something.

"What?" 

"You aren't planning on telling anyone about this, are you?"  
  


"What do you think I am, stupid?" she scoffed.  "They'd call me mental."  Her eyes twinkled.  "No, I wouldn't. It might get either of you expelled—or something in that area.  I don't hate you two [i]that[/i] much?"

James grinned at her.  "Thanks."  Holding out his hands to each of them, he helped them to their feet.  "We'd better get cleaned up—I know we must look terrible."  
  


"We do," Lily agreed, "and we'd better make sure we don't run into anyone on our way inside.  Goodness knows what questions they'd ask if we did."

As luck would have it, the rain had chased everyone inside the staff room or the common rooms, so they didn't bang into one of the Slytherins that would only have been too delighted to see the famous Gryffindor Chaser covered in leaves, twigs, dirt, and vegetable peelings, besides being soaked through and through.

Lily hailed the prefect's bathroom on the third floor (the closest one) with a grin; she pushed James back as Lora and she entered it.  "You go somewhere else.  Have fun!"

She had never thought that getting rid of dirt could be so much fun, and one advantage of magical bathtubs was that the water never got dirty, and that the bits of squash and the leaves that came out of her hair dissolved instantly, without sticking around and being rather disgusting.  

Along with the grime, her grudge against Lora disappeared, and the same went for Lora.  When they walked into the common room, they were telling each other odd jokes they had picked up over the summer, much to James' surprise and relief; he hadn't expected them to come back at all—it would have been more realistic to expect two bodies to be found strewn around the prefect's bathroom.

No one asked if anything was wrong at all, and Lily was relieved.  She hadn't any idea of what she would say if anyone did ask her, so she was putting all her effort into pretending that nothing was wrong, when in all actuality, everything was.  The 'shadow in the East' had vanished without a trace, so the Daily Prophet reported, and the manager of an orphanage in London had died mysteriously, with no marks on him to show how he had met his end.

The Hufflepuffs went down completely before Ravenclaw in the next game of the season; they were out of the running for the Quidditch Cup; they had lost two hundred and ten to twenty.  Slytherin bowled over Ravenclaw as soon as they got on the field; the new players were evidently much better than the old ones had been.  There were only two games left—Gryffindor against Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor against Slytherin; those were to be held after Christmas break.

One afternoon, Sirius dawdled into his dormitory, with the intention of taking a nice, long nap.  He flung himself down on his bed, but immediately looked over at the figure sitting on the four-poster next to him.

"James?  I was wondering."  
  


"Wondering what?"  James was turning something over and over in his fingers.

"Where you were.  What's that?"  Sirius sat up.

James turned rather pink, and he closed his fist around the object.  "Nothing."

"Hey, I'm your best friend!  Hand it over, pal.  If you can't trust me, who can you trust?"

James simply looked at him.  
  


"Okay, so maybe that's not such a good excuse.  Just lemme see it a second."  
  


James sighed and threw it to Sirius, burying his head in his pillow immediately afterwards.  "That was [i]not[/i] a good idea…"

Sirius caught it.  It was a silver band, intricately carved, with a sapphire set in the middle.  "Nice ring.  Who's it from?"

A muffled voice came from the pillow.  "It's from nobody.  It was supposed to be [i]for[/i] someone, but now I'm not so sure."

"You're not sure?  Who was it for?"  Sirius was frankly curious, and also worried.  "Go on."  
  


"Never mind…"  James hit his head against the pillow.  

"I do mind, though.  Who for?"

"Er—" he stumbled—"well, actually—"  He sat straight up.  "You have got to promise [i]never[/i] to tell anyone about this.  [i]Never.[/i]"

"Sure."  Sirius was surprised at his own nonchalance.  "Shoot."

"It—well, I actually meant this for Narcissa, but…"

"What, Serena?"  Sirius felt relieved.

"Yeah—her—but I don't know."

"What don't you know?"  A thought struck Sirius' mind.  "You're not planning to get [i]married,[/i] are you?"  
  


"No—yes—no—I don't know!"  James was furiously red.  "It's just that I don't know really what I'll do out of Hogwarts…and I do like her a lot—I mean, she's sweet…she understands me; she's nice…she's always there for me…and people get married all the time when they've left school!  It's not like it's a new thing!"

"Let me get this straight."  Sirius was trying to keep from laughing.  "You're asking the daughter of the Minister of Magic to marry you?  You're a Marauder.  You'll have no [i]freedom,[/i] for Pete's sakes—she'll always be after you to put the toilet seat down and to pick up your own clothes.  Think, my friend, think!"

"I AM thinking!" James roared.  "Why do you think I said I wasn't so sure!"

"Oh."  Sirius thought about that.  "Okay; go ahead."  
  


"I'm not sure about it, that's all."

"You mean you like to leave the toilet seat up?" Sirius grinned.

"Sirius!"

"Okay, okay…I'll stop.  But why'd you change your mind?"  
  


"No reason."  The red that had started to recede from his cheeks came back full force, spreading to his ears and above his eyebrows.

"Oh, sure.  No, really, James, just tell me!"

James glared.  "I said there was no reason!"

"Sure, sure, there IS no reason in the idea of marriage…no, but come on!"

"SIRIUS!"

By the end of the day, all four of the Marauders knew about that afternoon, and they were teasing James beyond insanity, though they were more serious than usual—this was just another omen—they'd be broken up when they left Hogwarts.  Remus wanted to teach or tutor students; Peter hadn't any real plans, which probably meant he'd be working odd jobs; the same with Sirius—though he kept saying that he'd start selling flying motorcycles to the magical world—and James wanted to either play Quidditch for England—or—or—

He wanted to try the Ministry.  Not a stuffy job behind a desk; after what he had seen of Lord Voldemort, he had become inclined to try becoming an Auror.  It would certainly be interesting…he'd certainly like to try it…

Still, he doubted, privately, whether Serena would approve of his plans; she didn't like anything dangerous.  It annoyed him sometimes that she worried over him whenever he got on a broomstick, and that was on of the reasons he was hesitant about this.  He wasn't planning on getting married right away, of course—this was an engagement ring, and nothing else.  Just because his mother and father had married right out of Hogwarts didn't mean he had to…

On her part, Lily had gone to Professor Dumbledore and accepted the offer he had made her for a substitute and student teacher.  She would be starting next year, filling in for teachers and acting as an aide; she would have her own office, and she would be allowed to leave Hogwarts for vacations.

Still, Lily didn't like the idea of the life that was presenting itself to her.  She didn't want to spend her life cooped up inside an almost lightless castle—she wanted to [i]do[/i] something that would make her heart race, something that would awaken an interest in living…

Lily had heard the Marauders talking about what they wanted to do later, and one of James' remarks had caught her interest. He had spoken of being a Marauder; one of his father's friends, Alastor Moody, had already talked to him about that possiblilty.  It was dangerous, but it paid well, and it should be fun, she mused…she wouldn't have to do it for a long time to be able to support herself for the rest of her life, and if she ever wanted to stop, she could travel—travel to the savannas of Africa, the forests of India, and the Alps in Switzerland…the canals in Venice, the pyramids in Egypt, and the Acropolis in Greece—anything and everything she had ever wished to see…if she really wanted to, she could even act—

Before anyone knew anything at all, it was Christmastime, and most of the students had left Hogwarts.  The Marauders were staying, as was Lily, however, practically all the rest of the student population was going home.  Severus was leaving, Lucius was going on a vacation with his parents to Denmark, Eva and Vanessa were going to the wedding of their cousin's in Australia, Amanda was simply going home, Lora was going with the Doylens', naturally…

It was only on the morning of the first day of the Christmas holidays, when Lily entered the common room, that she found out that Elspeth and Serena had stayed behind, too.

It was a beautiful morning; Lily had woken to see patches of blue and gold shining through swirling bits of white outside the large window in the dormitory.  She swung her feet into a pair of dark slippers and threw on a midnight-blue dressing gown she had been able to wear in her first year; however, it took hardly any time to lengthen it. It was a little tight around the waist, but Lily didn't mind especially.  She slipped her hand underneath [i]A Doll's House[/i] by Henrik Ibsen and practically flew down the marble stairs.

Serena met her eyes when she appeared at the bottom of the stairwell, her hand resting on the banister.  She was the only one that had seen or heard Lily; with a distinct, superior toss of her head, she turned back to the chess game between Elspeth and James that she was watching.

Somehow, Lily felt inferior to her in some way—it was something she couldn't quite place her finger on.  A bit pink, she turned to an armchair near the fire and drew her book close to her, pulling her plait over her shoulder to hide her face.

It wasn't any use, though.  Sirius spotted her and came over to her seat.

"'Lo, Lily!  Merry Christmas!"

She had to laugh.  "It isn't Christmas yet!"

"No, but it's the holidays.  Come on over—sit with us."

"No thanks," Lily declined, "I'd rather not.  I'd better go down to breakfast, anyway—"

"I'll go with you.  Come on, let's go."  He picked her up and set her on her feet, heading for the portrait hole.

"Sirius—I'm not dressed," she hissed, gesturing at the dressing gown covering the white nightgown and the flimsy, though warm, slippers.

He grinned at her.  "You'll be all right.  You look nice.  Come on, I'm in pajamas, too.  You'll live."  
  


She gave in with a smile.  "Sure.  I suppose so, then."

"Good."  They climbed out of the portrait hole into the slightly colder passageway; Lily noticed with a grin that the Fat Lady had drawn a large, elaborate shawl around her shoulders.  

Breakfast went quietly; only two owls flew inside at the usual time the mail was delivered; one with Lily's Daily Prophet, and one with a letter for a Ravenclaw boy that had stayed behind.  There was nothing new inside it today, which was a relief, but she caught Sirius eyeing her warily as he saw her checking the paper with an almost frenzied interest.  He didn't mention anything, which was reassuring, but she did her best to keep the conversation on the reason that Sirius liked motorcycles so much.  It kept him busy for a good while, and when that was exhausted, the plates were clearing, and they were leaving for the common room.

There was quite a bit of homework for the students to do; the teachers were cutting one of the seventh years' optional classes and sticking in one that taught them how to Apparate.  It only lasted for half a term, and it was required to get an Apparition licence.  They could take their test anytime afterwards, but the class itself involved lots of studying, as they were warned by the teachers.  Still, it wasn't an optional class, so they couldn't exactly have exempted it.  

One of their assignments before the class started was to write an essay on the inventors of the Apparition and Disapparition methods and the way they went about their experiments.  Lily was looking up Ferdinand Frogdard in an encyclopedia that afternoon when she received an invitation from the other side of the common room.

"Hey, Lily!  Up for a game of chess?"  
  


It was Sirius that had called to her, and she shut her book as she stood up.  "You're sure I won't be in the way?"

"Nah," he called back to her, "what put that into your head?  Come on—here, play James.  He's been bragging about how good he is.  Get over here and prove him wrong, why don't you?"

She smiled as she sat down at one end of the chessboard, wondering vaguely why James' cheeks were a bit pink…

"What color you want, Lily?"  Sirius was setting up the board.

"Oh—black, of course!"

Sirius grinned at her.  "What else?  Go ahead, James, wake up, it's your move."

James started.  "What's my color?"

Sirius rolled his eyes.  "White."

Lily beat James, hands down; he was acting too distracted to really be able to pay attention to anything.  She had tried to find out exactly what was bothering him, but he only mumbled something about what he wasn't sure about after Hogwarts, and it took her a good while just to decipher that.  She gave up after she checkmated him in four moves, something he had never let happen before, since he [i]knew[/i] those four moves.  In fact, he usually used them when he was playing against Peter, who never really learned that he shouldn't copy James' every move; that would lead to his downfall.

Still, Lily was glad that he wasn't paying attention; she would have lost otherwise.  On her part, she was a bit disconcerted by the fact that he kept staring at her and then looking down at the board when she met his gaze, and then pushed in between the small bit of information that Serena kept her hand on his shoulder through the entire game…

She was confused.  She stayed confused.  She was not enlightened.

Christmas morning dawned beautifully.  The snow was packed loosely, in flowing drifts, and the sky was free of clouds; a pale zircon blue streaked with shafts of pink and watered gold, it spread itself over the castle like a freshly-washed sheet flung over a mattress.  Lily was the first in her dormitory to wake up, and she threw on her dressing gown instantly, ignoring the pile of presents at her feet and flitting over to the window, which she threw open, breathing in the soft blasts of cool air that flowed around her face and tousled her hair.

Lily watched the sun rise over the Forbidden Forest , and she stayed at the window, sitting on the sill, until it threw goldenrod beams in her eyes and one of the girls stirred in her bed behind Lily, who sighed softly and closed the window, then turning back to her bed and the pile of presents.

A mischievous grin spread over her face as she looked at them and at her watch, which currently read six o'clock.  Before she could conjure up a bucket of ice, however, the four Marauders stormed into the dormitory, each carrying large caretaker's pails filled with bits of broken ice from the lake and snowballs, which they started throwing at Serena, Lily, and Elspeth.  Serena and Elspeth shrieked and tried to bury their heads underneath their pillows after getting hit in the face (courtesy of Sirius), but Lily started scraping snow from the windowsill and throwing it back at them.  

They only stopped when they ran out of frozen material, and even then Lily had to be forcefully stopped by Sirius from conjuring up a large, cold waterfall over Serena and James' heads.  He didn't accept the excuse "What's Christmas without practical jokes?"

The boys had left their presents outside the door, and after drying off the dormitory with a quick spell, they tore into theirs, all piling on to either Elspeth's or Lily's bed, since those two were next to each other.

The first one that lay at the foot of Lily's four-poster was from Eva, who had sent her a selection of differently colored socks she said she had bought in the Muggle department store section entitled [i]For the Woman who has Everything[/i].  Of course, Lily didn't have everything, but it was nice to get something other than Zonko's joke supplies or the everlasting Chocolate Frogs that Peter had sent her.

Lora gave her a book that told her about how to find out if her jewelry really contained true emeralds and rubies or if the stones were just paste, which was an interesting read.  Hey, Lily thought, if all else fails, I can give an expert opinion on the authenticity of precious stones for a living. 

Remus had given her a set of Donald Duck cartoon books, each about five hundred pages thick, and all in German.  Actually, he hadn't given her the whole set, since there were about a hundred of the books, but he did give her ten of them.  Lily laughed out loud when she opened it, and Remus flashed her a most werewolf-like grin when he saw that she had opened his present.

Sirius had given her a pair of slippers, since he had noticed that hers were growing too small.  They were very nice; black brocade with the face of a cat embroidered in silver near the toes, they made absolutely no sound when she moved.  He got a rather sheepish look on his face when she thanked him, which didn't suit him at all, but she suspected she didn't look any different when he unearthed a model of Professor Trelawney in one of his presents, with a card attached that read: [i]Whenever you want to laugh, just look at her for a long time.  You will find her glasses to become horribly funny.[/i]

She picked up a package wrapped in gold paper; scanning the card, she flipped it over.

[i]To Lily Evans, care of Mr. Evans, until it can be sent to her.  From Richard Walden.[/i]

Lily frowned.  She actually felt rather guilty about not having remembered him since she returned to Hogwarts; curious, she slit the gold paper open. 

Before she could open it, however, Serena snatched it out of her hands.

"Oh, looky here!  Who's this from?"  
  


"No one," Lily mumbled, "and give it back to me."

"Hey now," Serena taunted, "do we know a Richard Walden?  James, looky here—someone's got a secret correspondent!"  
  


Lily crossed her arms.  "Hand it [i]over.[/i]  He is [i]not[/i] a secret correspondent.  I met him at one of my father's business parties.  Give it to me."  
  


"No, no, now!"  Serena was waving it around in the air, just out of her reach, and Lily wasn't going to stoop to stretching for it.  "Let's just see what this contains, shall we?"  
Taking Lily's glare for an assent, she pulled the gold paper off of it.

Lily was sitting on her hands, mumbling something Remus could decipher as meaning:  "Hitting people is bad.  Do not hit people.  People don't like being hit.  Hitting people hurts your hands.  Hitting people is bad.  Do not hit people  People don't like being hit…"

"Aww, now, wasn't that sweet?"  Serena, still laughing playfully, had uncovered a small dark blue box.  Everyone seemed to think this was one gigantic joke, and only Remus was frowning a bit.  

On opening it, Serena and Elspeth simply looked at each other, then started to laugh.  They hadn't shown anyone else what was in the box, and they obviously hadn't an idea that Christmas presents that weren't addressed to them, well, didn't belong to them.

"Excuse me," Lily interrupted frostily.  Serena stopped her giggling, and the group swerved around to see the standing redhead, one eyebrow arched and her mouth set. 

"I believe that [i]isn't[/i] yours."  

Serena frowned.  "What; we were just having fun!"

Lily tapped her finger impatiently against her arm.  "If you don't hand that over immediately, I will have some fun, and it will involve my wand and lots of Latin words."

"Oh, okay, okay!"  Serena threw it over to Lily, whispering to James, "Can't she just take a joke?"

Lily whipped her hand out and snatched the box, coolly opening it and sitting down next to the window.  Her face didn't portray her surprise at all, so the boys, who, naturally, were extremely curious, couldn't deduce anything from her features.

"Oh, come on, Lily!" James grumbled.  "We let you see our presents!"

She didn't answer, simply slipped a small, golden ring onto her hand.  Suddenly, as if someone had pushed a button, the boys started climbing practically all over each other to see the ring; it took much of overturning boxes and upsetting trunks and tables before they managed to get to her, though; they were in such a hurry.

It wasn't anything special; a gold band with a small diamond set in the center of it, and there had been no note attached to the box, but everyone in the room jumped to a hurried conclusion.

"[i]Lily![/i]"  You're getting [i]married![/i]"  

"Don't be stupid, you prat, she wouldn't get married at sixteen!  That's an engagement ring, isn't it?"

"Is that guy a Muggle?"

"Yeah, is he, Lily?"

"Come on—she wouldn't marry a [i]Muggle,[/I]would she?"

"I wouldn't put it past her!  Lily, why're you doing this?  Are you giving up your wand and everything?"

"Lily, come on, even Peter here should be better than this Richard pillock!  There's still time to change your mind!"

"You've got a Muggle boyfriend?"

"You've got a [i]boyfriend?[/i]"

That last was from Serena, and it earned her several dirty looks, but Lily ignored all of this, though she was rather amused by the next few comments.

"Why didn't you tell us, Lily, we're your friends, for Pete's sake!"

"No, we're not!"

"Peter, that was in third year and stuff.  This is seventh."  
  


"Oh.  But—"

"Peter, shut up!"

"Lily, can't you marry one of us instead of some Muggle idiot!  Hey—we'd at least allow you to use magic, for Pete's sake!"

"Sirius, who'd you have in mind for her to marry?"

"I dunno," Sirius shrugged, "anyone!  Lily, pleeeease!"

"You're only sixteen!"

"But she'll be seventeen when she sees him again—wait!  ARE YOU DROPPING OUT, YOUNG LADY?"

"Oh, you genius!  She wouldn't do that, she'd just take her exams early.  Hey, could you tell us what's on them when you finish?"

"Yeah, Lily, wouldja?  Then we wouldn't have to study!"

"Lily, please!"  
  


"What are we pleasing for this time?"

"We want the questions on the test, honestly, Peter, haven't you been listening!  Lily, please!!"

This came from all four of them at once.  "PLEASE?!"

Lily couldn't help it; she started to laugh.  "I see you've got my whole future planned out for me?"  
  


"Well—er—"  The boys, who had been tugging at the hem of her nightgown and her feet, looked suddenly embarrassed.  "We just deduced…"

"[i]Never[/i] start a detective firm."  She smirked.  "This isn't an engagement ring, for one thing, I'm not marrying anytime soon, I'm [i]not[/i] taking my exams early, I have no intention of leaving school and giving up my wand, and [i]you're meddling with my business![/i]" she snapped.

Every face, well, every face except two looked embarrassed and relieved at her words, and they quickly started getting wrapping paper off of the floor, when suddenly Peter looked around.

"Where's James?"

"Nowhere," a smooth voice came in from the doorway.  "I'm right here."

Peter frowned.  "But—you were—gone…"  He wrinkled his brow.

"[i]Was,[/i]" James corrected.  "I only left for a while.  Hey, Serena—" he added, moving to the disapproving blonde, "come on—let's get some breakfast; you look hungry—well, and I know [i]I am[/i]—"

They left the room amidst several stares; mostly incomprehending stares.  

"Er," Sirius cleared his throat, "well, that was odd."

Instead of the ice being broken, all heads swiveled towards him, and he flung out his hands.  

"What?  I'm no standup comic; don't ask me to get you guys talking!"

"I beg to differ," Lily said dryly, and the room erupted with laughter.

They joined the couple at breakfast a few minutes later; since it was the holidays and only they and a few others were staying behind, they didn't bother to change out of their pajamas and nightgowns, as usual.  The Great Hall looked magnificent; twelve giant Christmas trees were set up at carefully measured intervals around the room, glittering, real snowflakes were falling from the ceiling, snowflakes that disappeared moments before they landed on anything, students included; the House banners were new ones, with the background silver and the animal for each House in its regular color; the Slytherin banner looked especially beautiful, with the dark green snake against the silver background.  Lily personally didn't quite see the point of this, as there were hardly any students there to appreciate it, but she didn't mind in the least.  It was one of the most amusing things in the world to see Sirius and James try to make snowballs and failing to catch the snow that disappeared before they could get to it.  It was a game of 'How to Keep an Idiot Busy,' and it was quite entertaining.

After breakfast, most of the students left the Great Hall for the common room, planning a snowball fight for later on in the day, when the sun was shining the brightest.  Lily declined the invitation to a chess tournament, so, after getting dressed and flinging her black cloak around her shoulders, she left the castle for the grounds, carrying several sheets of paper and a pencil.

It was a practically perfect winter morning; the sun glittered gently on the soft snow covering the ground and the trees; there were absolutely no footprints on the snow, as it had been snowing that night, the Forbidden Forest duskily groomed itself before her in a friendly manner, and the lake was filled with icy briars etched into the lake, almost as if fairies had been gliding on it, and the touch of their feet had cracked the ice that covered the water.  

Lily took in the winter air with a sigh, a heartfelt longing for the day and the time never to change.  She felt at home, here, with the cold wind rustling through her lungs and filling her mouth, and with the small, soft snowflakes landing on her hair and eyelashes, staying there, not melting, and for a moment the world around her was perfect in her eyes.


	60. The conditions under which Lily would ag...

Smiling dreamily, she let herself sink into the snow with her back against a tree, facing the lake, the snow-and-ice covered castle.  Pulling out her pencil, she let it glide over the page, entranced; she stared into the spires of the castle's towers.

Lily was pulled out of her dream what seemed like five seconds later; actually, it was almost two hours after she had left the castle.  The six other Gryffindors had launched themselves onto the new-fallen snow, packing it together in their mittened paws, and throwing it while almost falling down laughing.  Lily smiled, and, as a precaution, folded her drawings and tucked them away inside her robes, replacing the space in her hand with her wand.  Clumping her own bit of snow into a ball, she muttered something under her breath, and for the next five minutes, she and everyone else was laughing madly at Peter trying to figure out why there was a stubborn mass of snow that he wasn't able to break and that kept launching itself at his head.

Finally, everyone sank to their knees or onto their backs on the ground; they were all exhausted.  Lily rolled over so that her chin rested on her folded hands.  James was lying merely feet from her.

"Having fun?"  
  


"You bet," he laughed.  "Don't I always?"

"Well," she grinned, "if you enjoy dancing madly in your seat because you can't reach snowflakes, I'd say you do."  
  


"Hey!" he protested.  "That was entertainment, provided and planned beforehand by me!"

"Entertainment, yes.  Provided, yes.  Planned beforehand?"  
  


"Okay, so it wasn't," he admitted.  Grinning, she pulled her hair out of her face, and his eyes were suddenly latched onto something on her hand.

What's that?"

"What's what?"  She was confused.  "Oh, you mean this?"  The ring Richard had given her had caught the sunlight.  "It's from someone I met at one of my father's business parties."  
  


"I see," he nodded.  "So—what's going on between you two?"

Lily raised an eyebrow.  "Haven't I already been through this?"  
  


"You have?" he asked, for once honestly confused.

"I have.  I explained, as plainly as I could, that he wasn't my fiancé, that I wasn't leaving school early, and that I wasn't going to take exams early in the case I did leave school early and definitely not give you and your friends the answers to the questions.  I am under a distinct impression I did say that."

"Oh."  James frowned.  "I see…I guess I didn't hear that—I thought you were engaged, or something."

The next minute, Lily did something that startled him almost out of his snowdrift.  She rolled over on her back, laughing loudly and almost maniacally, gasping between laughs, "You thought I was getting [i]married?  You thought I was—[/i]oh, good [i]God![/i]"

He maintained a stiff façade.  "I don't see what's so funny about it!"

"The idea—the [i]idea![/i]—of me getting married—I can understand the others, besides, they weren't really serious—but you know me better than they, and you actually expect me to marry someone and settle down?  To follow behind him the rest of my life?  You've got more than a few screws loose, my friend."

"Oh," he said again.  "I see.  But—well, under what conditions would you get married?"  
  


His question had the effect of quieting Lily down immediately; rolling back over, she raised herself up on her elbows.

"I don't know, but I do know that I'm not getting married unless I know that I honestly love someone.  I don't think I will fall in love—in fact, I highly doubt it, since that happens hardly once a century—and I've got to like the person too, not just love him…Why're you asking?"  
  


"No reason," he blushed.  "It's just that you don't look the type of person ever to get married, that's all."

"I see," she said skeptically, arching an eyebrow.

Lily let herself be persuaded to play everyone else in chess; so far, no one had beat her in it yet, not even James, who usually was one of the best players for corridors around.  Remus had insisted for a few minutes that the chess set she used was enchanted, but he had to give up that theory when he lost half of his pieces in less than five minutes, using his own pieces, and while someone else held Lily's wand.

James and Peter had left the common room to get drinks, they said, and they were met with heartfelt applause when they returned with seven mugs and two steaming pitchers of hot chocolate, which conveniently didn't run out, as that kind of charm was one of Sirius' specialities.  Lily didn't wonder at that; the amount of food Sirius managed to put away during meals made her wonder if he really didn't weigh over three hundred pounds or if his size was an optical illusion on everyone else's part.  No one had any idea where he put all of his food, and he could eat anything.  He had eaten part of a rat once, when James had dared him to, and Sirius didn't back down from dares.  

They spent the rest of the day curled up in the common room, comfortably chatting with each other and listening to the fire flicker.  Lily was too good-natured that evening to get bothered about Serena's presence, and Serena seemed to feel the same way; at least, they were friendly with each other.

It was close to four o'clock when Sirius let himself fall down onto the couch next to Lily and stretched his arms over the back of the sofa.  

"Hullo."  He yawned.

Lily smiled.  "Merry Christmas."

Sirius grinned back.  "Likewise."

They said nothing for a few minutes; then Sirius flexed his knuckles lazily.  "What's that I heard you and James talking about?"  
  


"Talking about when?"  Lily asked.

"Outside, this afternoon.  Something about marriage."

"Oh…right—he asked me under what conditions I would."

"Would what?"  
  


"Marry someone."  
  


"But you're not, are you?" Sirius asked, suddenly extremely worried.  "I mean—you're barely sixteen and a half, you're too independent for that—well, you're [i]not[/i], are you?"  
  


Lily laughed.  "You make it sound like a plague.  No, and I don't think I ever will.  I don't much like the idea of it."  
  


"Oh."  He sounded relieved, which confused Lily a bit.  "Good."

"[i]Good?[/i]"

"Well—yeah," he improvised.  "Yeah."

Lily laughed.  "I see."

James leaned over the back of the couch, between Sirius and Lily.  "So, what's going on over here?"  
  


"I dunno," Sirius shrugged, "but she had me royally confused there for a minute."  
  


James leaned down to whisper in Lily's ear, "Do I want to know?"  
  


"No," Lily wickedly grinned, "it'd be safer if you didn't."

That evening's feast was wonderful; wizard crackers were popping apart every few seconds, and white mice and dancing miniature poultry had the run of the tables, while many sets of Gobstones and Exploding Snap cards and wizard checkers and chess were piling up on the one table—everyone was seated at the teacher's table, since there were only about ten or so students there.  The snowflakes from that morning were still falling, but the boys had given up on trying to catch them, thankfully, since they would almost certainly have upset the masterpiece of a glittering, white pudding and cake that was the centerpiece.

Lily smiled into her pillow as she fell asleep that night, wrapped loosely in her blanket—it had been a wonderful day—beautiful and peaceful, friendly and interesting, besides amusing.

For the New Year, Remus and Peter had simply sneaked into Hogsmeade and returned with a few flasks of butterbeer while the other two kept the girls busy, with their attention away from the fact that the other two boys were missing, so it was a surprise for all the girls when Remus and Peter showed up, laden down with bottles of warm, brownish-butter-pecan coloured liquid, and they didn't waste an instant in relieving them of their load.  

Quickly, the school year started up again, and most of everything else, the dark predictions of Professor Trelawney that they would trip over a fireplace fender that very evening and knock out their front teeth and even the amount of work that the seventh years had, were quickly almost forgotten in the excitement of the Apparation classes.  They had to take mountains of notes in the beginning, and they had to write countless essays, but a month into the class, just before the second-to-last Quidditch game, Gryffindor against Ravenclaw, Professor Dumbledore, who was teaching this class—the only one he ever taught nowadays—had set up a small Apparition point that happened to be their classroom—in other words, they could Apparate from one point in the room to another while they were inside that room.  

The morning the seventh years had filed into the classroom and were informed of this new information, large grins broke out over five faces; the four Marauders' and Lora's.  They had been begging Professor Dumbledore for this for ages, that is, ever since the class was announced, and now they had their chance.

True, distances of sixty inches weren't exactly anything important, but they were taking every chance they had to do something potentially dangerous.

Professor Dumbledore was a relaxed teacher, as they found out, who did not insist that they be silent in his class; it had lots of similarities to Professor Flitwick's Charms classes.  Therefore, their hour and a half spent in the class was extremely pleasant, as they could hold many conversations and occasionally send jinxes flying at each other, which did usually prove disastrous to the other person's work.  

Lily was standing next to her desk; Lora and Sirius were practicing on either side of her, glaring at Lily, who was effortlessly Apparating from one desk to another, all over the room.  It was rather unnerving to have her pop up randomly in one's empty desk, and Lora, who was trying to concentrate, didn't enjoy it.

"Lily, can't you stay where you are once in a while?"  
  


Lily stopped Apparating; having just landed in her own desk.  "Professor Dumbledore told us to practice."

"Practice, yes!" Lora flailed.  "Not drive everyone else insane!"

Professor Dumbledore left the room quietly; he had told them that he would be attending a conference that period in his office.

"Okay."  Lily folded her arms.  "You do it, then."  
  


"Do what?"  
  


She rolled her eyes.  "Apparate, you great prat!"

"Oh, right."  Lora frowned, scrunching up her face and whispering something to herself, and then—then—

Then nothing.  She stood there for a good five minutes before relaxing her face and slumping into a chair.

"I can't do it.  I can't."  
  


"Well, you'd certainly win the vote for the Pope of Fools, with that face.  It's not that hard; just concentrate on where you want to get."  
  


On her left, James had just managed to Apparate across the room, and he took a deep bow to the applause that filled the room, shouting, "Yes!  Yes!"  Lily nodded.

"See, if the Quidditch player can do it, so can you.  Imagine that I've just cursed you."  
  


Lora sighed.  "But you [i]haven't![/i]"

"Okay, then—" Lily Apparated to the door, just to be safe, and pointed her wand at Lora.  "Tenrash Pfefferolus!"—the charm James had invented and had used on her before she accidentally got locked into the dungeon and found the necklace—it gave one the sensation of just having swallowed a whole jar of cayenne pepper and then some.

Immediately, Lora started to half-scream loudly for water, and after she'd finished rolling around on the floor, clutching her mouth, she stood up, glaring at Lily, who looked quite satisfied.  The next instant, Lora vanished and showed up across the room with her hands around Lily's neck, yelling something like "You didn't have to [i]burn[/i] my mouth to pieces!"

It didn't last very long, however.  Moments later, Lora's arms, neck, and one foot appeared in the spot she had been in before, and Lora was stuck.

Professor Dumbledore chose that time to enter the classroom again, and his eyes twinkled as he saw the splinched figure on the floor and the rest of the class trying fruitlessly not to laugh.

"My dear Miss Tempesta, we [i]have[/i] gotten ourselves into a mess, have we not?"  He pulled out his own wand.  "Fortunately, the Ministry of Magic has given me the power to reverse accidental magic—there."  Lora was whole again, but she was feeling her neck as if it would come off any second.

She glared at Lily, who was packing up her things; the bell was about to ring.  "Thanks a lot, Lily."

Lily slammed her hand down on her schoolbag.  "Look, how was I to know you'd get yourself splinched!"

"You [i]had [/i]to use that curse on me?"  
  


"Oh."  Lily resumed her packing.  "It was the first one that came to mind.  I know what it feels like; don't worry about that.  James used it on me way back in first year."

"Ooh, [i]way[/i] back in first year, now [i]there's[/i] something that happened yesterday."

"Well, then, I've only got one bit of advice for you."

"What's that?"  Lora was still spitting out spicy saliva into the sink.  

"Never come to visit me," Lily said smoothly, "after we leave Hogwarts.  I like spicy food."

Lora groaned.  "Sometimes I wish you would just shut up…"

The bell rang, and the two separated for their next class.  "Wish granted!"  Lily grinned as she disappeared into the crowds.

The next Quidditch game, Gryffindor against Ravenclaw, was that Saturday, and the whole week long, everyone was in high spirits just thinking about it.  The Quidditch players were regarded as greater heroes than they had ever been, and James' ego, for one, was boiling over a bit.

Remus and Sirius had been sneaking down to the kitchens almost constantly, and Lily suspected they were trying to persuade the house-elves to set out the feast (if they won) when they were returning from the match.  It was only on Saturday morning, at breakfast, that their faces lightened, and they grinned heartily as they caught the sight of the mounds and heaps of sausages and pancakes lying on platters in front of them.  

"Oh, good, food!" Sirius exclaimed.  He didn't waste any time in piling it onto his plate.

James shook his head.  "Sirius, I swear, you could eat the entire Hogwarts castle and come back for more.  Even [i]I[/i] don't eat that much, and the Lord may help whoever I end up marrying; she's going to be cooking nonstop."

"You assume that you're going to get married," Lora said meanly.  "I don't know…you may be a Quidditch player, but…"

"Oh, shut up, Lora!" James sighed playfully.  "The [i]things[/i] I [i]go[/i] through…"

"Oh, shut up, James," Lily said coolly as she helped herself to another piece of toast.

"The angel of comfort spreads its wings over the cold and starving populace," James said sarcastically.  "Geez, Lil, be nice!  I've got a game ahead of me, and you're making the birds in my stomach throw fits."

"Birds?" Serena laughed.  "I thought it was butterflies!"  
Lily caught the girl's gaze.  "You can have whatever you want in your stomach.  He has birds."

Before anyone had a chance to say anything, a bell sounded, and the happy chirping of students shifted to the grounds as they flooded the lawns, all eager for a good Quidditch game.

Lily managed to swipe a seat next to Sirius and some other Gryffindor third year she didn't know.  She was wearing the scarf Remus had given her a few years ago; it wasn't as warm as the bright sunlight wanted them to think.  

The Ravenclaw, Ludren, was commentating.  He took his position up in the teacher's stands; as Madam Hooch, the flying teacher and referee, blew her whistle for the teams to rise into the air, he pulled the magical microphone close to his mouth.

"Captains Howard and Potter—who's the new Gryffindor team captain, by the way--aaand—they're [i]OFF![/i]  Quaffle to James Potter of Gryffindor; he dives around that Bludger sent his way by Ravenclaw Beater Winters; Quaffle to Gryffindor Chaser Rebecca Oxley—now to Robert Wickman, also Gryffindor Chaser—we've got four new ones on the Gryffindor team, let's see how [i]that[/i] works out.  Anyway.  Quaffle to Oxley—Potter—Oxley—hog the Quaffle, why don't you?  Okay; good—Winters sends a very well-aimed Bludger towards Wickman, who's finally got the thing, but he drops it—Quaffle to Ravenclaw Chaser Flack…"

As the sun rose, so did the speed of the players, who were each trying their utmost to win the game—if either of them won, they'd be playing against Slytherin for the thousandth Quidditch Cup.

The score soon rose to Gryffindor:  40 and Ravenclaw:  40.  The Keepers for both sides were very good—the new Gryffindor one was a fifth year, India Falner, who didn't mind sacrificing her stomach to stop the Quaffle and Bludgers.  The Ravenclaw Keeper, Howard, didn't use his stomach as a punching bag, but he was more adept at catching the Quaffle and ducking away from Bludgers.  

"And Slycke chasing up the field with the Quaffle—hands it to Flack—back to Slycke—Lorenor—Flack—Sl—no, Potter does a nasty steal and is heading towards the goalposts—he swerves—and he scores!  Fifty to forty for Gryffindor," the announcer stated, sounding everything other than excited, though the cheers from the Gryffindor end soon drowned him out.

Lily could see that the teams were counting on the Snitch, as neither could count on getting one hundred and sixty more points than the opposing team.  Meanwhile, Gryffindor was in the lead, and a Bludger had almost knocked Rebecca off of her broom more than once.  Falner, the Gryffindor Keeper, was developing a nasty bruise on her stomach.

James and Rebecca were the most coordinated Chasers on the field; they kept circling the Ravenclaws and swerving closely around them, making their opponents slightly dizzy.  But, still, with the Bludgers aimed at them all the time and the cobbing they had to get used to, the scores stayed almost tied, as they rose to Ravenclaw:  80 and Gryffindor:  70.

"Lorenor throws the Quaffle to Slycke—intercepted by Potter, who—OUCH, that must have hurt—hit in the spine by a Bludger—well, shame, it's not broken, and he resumes play.  Quaffle—no, wait!  Referee calls it a foul—now, that's not fair, Professor!  He should have gotten out of the way, why'd he let the Bludger hit him!"

James took his position in front of the goal posts, aimed, and threw—the Quaffle flew past Howard, the Ravenclaw Keeper, and went through the hoop.  The Gryffindors as a whole were on their feet, applauding madly, as the score was raised to eighty for Gryffindor.  It started to confuse the older students when the new Ravenclaw Beater, Winters, had the same last name as John did--it produced a bit of uncertainty at hearing the commentator say that Winters launched a Bludger at Oxley.

"Okay, okay, score tied at eighty, and the game gets more intense.  Winters hits Potter in the stomach with his bat—well, he's not dead, is he?  Well, then!  Professor, not another foul—oh, no.  Gryffindor foul.  Oxley taking it—she aims—she throws—oh, damn!  Score's ninety to eighty for Gryffindor."

Rebecca refrained from taking a lap of honor around the field, such as James might have, but she couldn't help a wide grin.  Lily took that moment to wonder why Ludren was the commentator again-he [i]had[/i] been removed for the biased comments last year—but then she remembered that the Slytherin commentator they had had last year had been a seventh year.  Soon, however, the game started up again, and with it the cheers, leaving Lily no more time to think.

"Ravenclaw Chaser Lorenor swerves around new Gryffindor Seeker Elya Racor—she's a fourth year, by the way—and not bad looking on that broomstick, if I do say so myself.  Anyway, Lorenor gets past funny little Gryffindor blockade—Quaffle to Flack—Slycke—Flack—Lorenor—LORENOR SCORES!!  SCORE IS NINETY-NINETY!!"

They were tied again, and some of the players were coming close to giving up.  James called a short time-out, and they re-emerged from a huddle with fresh grins on their faces.  Lily suspected he had told them about the party that was planned if they won, but she couldn't be certain; she had to pay lots of attention to the persons jumping up and down on either side of her—Sirius and the Gryffindor third year, who obviously weren't paying any attention to anyone that was in the stands.  Still, Lily had to smile at Sirius, who had lifted up a small first year onto his shoulders so he could see better.

In a half hour, Ravenclaw was in the lead again, having just scored one hundred and thirty, breaking the tie at one hundred and twenty.  The grins were starting to wear thin, and people were starting to get hot in their wraps; the match had gone on for two hours already.

"Gryffindor's behind!  We all know where that'll lead—okay, then—Slycke dodges a Bludger sent his way by Gryffindor Beater Winters—can't we just call him Gryffy, Professor?  It wouldn't hurt him—well, I guess Winters wouldn't appreciate Ravy.  Sounds too much like gravy, don't you think?"

"Ludren!"

"Okay, okay, back to the match.  Potter steals the Quaffle from Slycke—dirty, cheating thing, you are, Potter!  Well, maybe not cheating, but you get my drift.  Still—Potter—oh; he stops in midair!  Completely pulls up—what was that for?  Oh—oh—oh—oh!!  Snitch!  I think!  Snitch in far-off corner near bottom of Gryffindor right goalpost!  Snitch!  Snitch!  Snitch!  Both Conven and Racor heading towards it—go, go, go, go—CONVEN, GO!" he roared.

Elya was stretching her hand towards the Quaffle—but Conven, the Ravenclaw Chaser, knocked her hand aside, almost bowling her over.  John took this time to send a well-aimed Bludger towards Conven.

It hit him full in the neck, and he fell two feet onto the ground, yelling bloody ax murder as Elya, confident and beaming, caught the Snitch with a whip of her hand and rose into the air to tumultuous Gryffindor cheering.

The Gryffindors poured onto the field, cheering their lungs out, as they lifted their team onto their shoulders, especially James, Elya, and John, who they considered to be the heroes of this match.  Lily looked around for Sirius, but he had already made his way into the Gryffindor common room.

When they arrived in the Gryffindor Tower, the feast was already spread out—though there was one condition.  In order to be able to eat any of the food, Sirius, Remus, and Peter had to be allowed to jinx you with a curse James had invented, and you had to figure out how to get it off of yourself.  It was one of the funniest sights in the world to see Frank Longbottom with long, droopy bunny ears that signed the "Do your ears hang low?" in sign language, or to catch Serena with a pug's nose and pig's feet.  Remus had made sure he got a picture of that.

Lily, on her part, enjoyed the colour-less eyes; in other words, she was walking around with absolutely no pupils, no color, no nothing in her eyes except white; still, she could see.  It unnerved more than a few people, needless to say.

Lily almost wished that she had been cursed with the monkey paws, which were being used by Lora to climb up students that had sprouted bark.  They looked interesting, to say the least, and it was almost a shame when Lora found that hopping backwards around the buffet table three times would cure the paws.

Lily's funny eyes were taken care of when she tripped over the carpet and did several accidental somersaults; while Serena still hadn't figured out how to get rid of the feet she couldn't fit into any of her shoes.  Lily couldn't help snorting when she saw James sitting next to someone who had extremely small, cloven feet on a footstool for all the world to see.

Serena frowned at her.  "What're you laughing at?"  
  


"You," Lily grinned.  "Now all you need is a curly tail."  
Serena simply glared and avoided Lily for the rest of the evening, which was quite to Lily's taste; she didn't mind one bit.  Actually, she liked it better this way.  

Still, it did annoy her to see one of her friends flitting around Serena like a constipated bat.  True, he had done this since third year, but STILL.

The night ended pleasantly, with tired, stuffed, and contented students making their way into their respective beds, and after the hot stuffiness of the wraps they had worn to the Quidditch field, it was doubtful whether anyone had ever enjoyed a shower more, besides maybe James, Lily, and Lora—but then again, after their encounter with the compost heap, they had taken baths, not showers.

Anatomy of Magical Creatures was pleasantly interesting for Lily; she was about the only girl not disgusted when they were told to dissect a vampire; vampires bearing an extremely strong resemblance to humans.  She found the gland easily that made all sorts of sweet things poisonous to them, though it was a bit harder to find the nerve ending that had fallen off of it; the nerve that kept them able to eat at all.  Their structure was much more complex than that of humans, and therefore, to Lily, much more interesting.  

James would rather have died before admitting this to her, but he did admire her for the non-queasiness she showed when faced with a task like this one.  Similarly, Lily felt exactly the same way about him; she was getting sick and tired of the disgusted looks some of the boys in the class would flash at their teacher after he had given them an assignment like this.

Divination was easy, as usual, and almost more boring than it had been.  True, Professor Trelawney [i]had[/i] accidentally tripped and fallen chest-first into a pot of boiling tea while trying to demonstrate the proper bearing of a Seer, but that had increased her desire to remain seated during class and to lecture on the poisons that would shortly flow through their veins if they didn't deduce their future correctly.

Lily yawned.  She was sitting at the same table with James and Sirius—Serena didn't take this class with them.

"You know, it'd be much more interesting—and we might actually halfway [i]believe [/i]her if she hadn't done this so often.  I wish she'd think of something more interesting…"

"She's thick, too," Sirius said, helping himself to a Chocolate Frog from his schoolbag.  "I can't believe that she gave me full marks for an essay in which I told her I'd die by resurrection in four days.  I wrote that essay in fourth year."  
  


"Exactly," Lily said.  "I don't know why she's still teaching here—but, believe me, if I ever have children, which is unlikely, I'm doing all I can so that they won't take Divination."

James grinned.  "Lily, I thought you said you didn't want to get married!"

"There is that," she admitted.  "Either of you, though, in case the unthinkable happens, warn my children, all right?"  
  


"Why not you?"

"I'm a forgetful person, am I not?"  
  


"I thought you meant you'd die before then, what with all your—" James stopped, flashed a glance at Sirius, and covered his sentence up—"what with all your fraternizing with Slytherins."  He had been about to say "fraternizing with Dark wizards."  
  


Sirius frowned; his gaze flickered between the two, but he didn't say anything, for Lily had just launched into a loud, whispered, enraged speech on how not all Slytherins were bad, that it was a stupid prejudice, and that prejudices were the worst things in the world.  

"Lily," James groaned, "shut up!  In the nicest way possible, [i]please[/i] shut up!"

Lily smirked.  "So I get on your nerves, is that it?"

"In the politest way possible, yes!"

"Good," she grinned, though she almost laughed aloud when she saw their mock-crestfallen faces.  "Well, it's fun!  For me, that is," she amended.

"For us it [i]isn't[/i].  Hush!" 

Sirius hit James on the back of the head.  "Don't tell her to shut up!"

James raised his head in surprise.  "Why ever not?"  
  


"Well—well—I dunno—er—uh-oh.  Trouble."

Professor Trelawney, for once, had risen to her feet and was standing just over James' head.  "And, may I ask, what were you three talking about that interested you so much during my lesson?" her misty voice asked.

Lily kicked the boys under the table, trying to tell them not to say anything.  "We were talking about the future lessons of our children, Professor."

It was very good that Sirius hadn't let out the snort of laughter he certainly wanted to, for Professor Trelawney's eyes filled with tears.

"Oh, but my dears, my [i]dears![/i]  If you could but see what I could…if you could but see…"  She turned around and swished off to face the rest of the students.  "I have changed your homework to a set of predictions instead of the star calculations.  Please, by Monday in two weeks, have for me a detailed essay on your children's lives.  I will be awaiting your answers with the greatest interest.  Class is dismissed," she breathed, still with the water swimming around in her eyes.  She was noticeably annoyed that no one asked her why she was so perturbed as they filed out of the classroom, but then again, she was always like this, except when she was extremely annoyed.

Professor Binns still worked at Hogwarts as the History of Magic teacher, and their hopes that he would leave when he died seemed things of a century ago, though he had only given up the body about two years ago.

The first time Lily used the expression 'given up the body,' she got several odd stares, but her explanation made sense.  He [i]hadn't[/i] given up the ghost; his ghost was still here, boring them almost to tears and certainly to headaches, but his body was goodness knows where, so he had obviously given up the body.

Lily was almost the only seventh year that even bothered to give an impression of studying hard; her classmates had managed to even leave the classroom while Professor Binns was droning on and on.  Long ago, Lily had given up raising her hand and asking questions; Professor Binns never really noticed her hand anyway.  She had resorted to reading her [i]History of Extremely Advanced and Dark Magic[/i] by Bathida Bagshot in class and taking her notes from there, instead of trying to understand the mysterious doings garbled up by a sleepy ghost about the attack of several centaurs on a Muggle village in 1758 A.D.; each of them armed with wands, which was supposed to be against the wand-possession law.

One evening, Lily was sitting in the library, trying to understand an assignment handed to them upon their exit from Transfiguration, when Severus slid into a seat next to her.

She looked up and smiled.  "Hello.  Haven't seen you much lately!"

"I know," Severus nodded.  "I've been busy, and you've been in your common room a lot."

"Don't tell me you've been looking for me," she teased.

"I have.  That is, I need to talk to someone once in a while, don't I?"

Lily smiled.  "I suppose you do, don't you?"

He turned to her assignment.  "What're you doing?"

She sighed and flung her quill onto the table.  "I'm supposed to be figuring out the steps to configure a raccoon into a candelabra, but I've no idea how to configure this—I actually don't know how to configure magically.  This is my dictionary's definition."  She handed Severus a slip of paper, the writing on which he read aloud:

[i_]__ To design, arrange, set up, or shape with a view to specific applications or uses: _a military vehicle that was configured for rough terrain; configured the computer by setting the system's parameters._ [/i]_

Severus frowned.  "Lily, you're working too hard.  Let me see the assignment."

She handed him the other slip of parchment, this one with Professor McGonagall's handwriting on it.  He smiled briefly as he pointed to a part of the paper.

"It's 'transfigure', not 'configure'."

"Oh."  She blushed.  "I'm an idiot…I should have known that.  Sorry for taking your time up."

He smiled at her.  "That's okay—always happy to help!"  He pushed his chair back and left the library, and Lily found herself hitting her head with a book.

"You idiot, you idiot, you idiot!"

The only thing that gained her was that James sat down next to her and pulled the book away from her forehead.  "What?  Why're you an idiot this time?"

Lily frowned.  "I just spent about an hour trying to understand how to configure a raccoon into a candelabra, and now Severus points out to me that this read 'transfigure', not 'configure'.  I feel like such a [i]genius![/i]" she sighed, looking around for another book.

James pinned her hand to the table.  "Don't hit yourself.  You're not stupid, just tired.  Come on; it's nine in the evening.  Give yourself a break."

She smiled weakly.  "I dunno."

"Lily, you're going to pass these end-of-year exams with at least two thousand per cent.  Don't kid yourself.  Help others, for instance.  It's a debt you must pay to society!"

Lily laughed.  "I suppose you mean by that that you need help?"

"You might say that, yes," he admitted.  "I do."

"Okay then," she said briskly, all trace of weariness wiped away.  "Where do we start?"  
  


"Here," he mumbled, pointing to a passage in [i]Advanced Herbology, Volume V.[/i]  "I don't quite understand this part of the revival charm…"

"Oh, that's easy," Lily said, taking her wand out.  "You see, the principle of the thing is this..."

They spent an hour in the library that evening; though they were studying, they still came back to Gryffindor Tower with a cheerful attitude.

"Goodnight," Lily yawned as she made her way over to the marble staircases leading to the girls' dormitories.  "See you tomorrow."

"Sure.  Thanks, Lil.  I'll never forget it!"

"Yes, you will," she said good-naturedly.  "Of course you will.  But I don't mind."

"See you, then."

"Mhm.  Night."

A bit more cheerful than she had been in some time, Lily undressed and slipped under the covers, in too good of a mood to even throw the slug someone had placed underneath her blanket at Serena.

The next morning, Professor McGonagall sprang a surprise test on them in class, and when the students left her classroom, there were more than a few moanings. 

"How could she [i]do[i] that?"

"It's only Maar that does that, how come she did?"  
  


"I failed that.  I know I failed that.  I failed miserably."  Peter was groaning.

"Well, it's not the end of the world, is it?"  Lily spoke up.

Peter glared, and for once, he seemed to gain something that in companionship of others could be called courage, but in this situation could only be called stupidity.

"Lily, shut up or I'll stuff a sock down your throat.  We all know you passed with full marks!  Happy?  You're smart, we're not—just [i]shut up![/i]"  
  


Lily arched her eyebrow, and Peter's stupidity (or courage, whichever floats your boat) started to diminish, and he accidentally backed into one of the suits of armour, causing it to topple over on to him.  Lily sniffed as she moved on by him, only bothering to look down once.

"You know, that was really, really clumsy."

True, James, Sirius, and Remus had to suppress snickers when they rushed over to help Peter up, and they didn't bother repressing the fact that trying to get into an argument with Lily was the height of idiocy.  Sirius pointed out that James used to do it all the time, but James simply admitted that yes, he did give a rather good imitation of a pillock when he had enraged her.  Still grumbling, Peter was dragged off to lunch in the Great Hall, mumbling something about the shield falling on his foot.

The next Quidditch match was coming up quickly; the one that was to decide the winner of the Quidditch Cup for the thousandth year of Hogwarts' existence.  Needless to say, rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin was getting to the point of a student war; most of the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs had arranged themselves alongside the Gryffindors, and several students were in the hospital wing with ailments like grass sprouting out of their noses or the substitution of quills for bones.  The teachers didn't approve of or tolerate this, but it was rather hard to prevent every single scuffle taking place in the corridors, so they simply had resorted to taking ten points off of every person that landed in the hospital wing, besides two detentions.

The teams hadn't time to get into any of the small fights; they were on the fields almost every hour of their free time, until Madam Hooch made them go inside and get to bed.  Robert Wickman, the new Gryffindor Chaser, seemed to have developed a sort of complex about the Quaffle ever since he had been hit in the jaw with it, while Falner, the Keeper, was still trying to cure the bruise on her stomach.  James was trying to hammer it into her head that one did not [i]catch [/i]Bludgers, one flew away from them.  She had faintly grasped this, and James was trying to teach her to catch the Quaffle with her hands, not her stomach, which would prevent many injuries.

The morning before the match, the Gryffindor team, for once, awoke cheerful and rested; James had insisted that they go to bed at eight-thirty in the evening.  They joined the school in the Great Hall ravenous and eager fore breakfast; they alone made away with a platter of toast and sausages, two pitchers of orange juice, a large pile of pancakes, and two dozen scrambled eggs.  They rose from the table at nine o'clock, refreshed and ready for the match; even promising autographs to people when they won the game.  James looked peeved to see the Slytherin team was doing exactly the same thing, but he couldn't say anything, naturally.


	61. You're not in love, are you, you prat?

The students piled onto the field, excited and ready for a good game of Quidditch; still chattering, they found their seats.  Lily was squeezed in between Sirius and Lora this time, and she foresaw doom for her feet, as both of her neighbors were ardent Quidditch fans and would certainly be jumping up and down at every goal the Gryffindor team shot.

James and the Slytherin captain, Rowlands—the only girl on the team—shook hands, and to Madam Hooch's whistle, they took off.

Ludren was commentating again.  "There they go!  And the Quaffle is released oh-so-nicely, and it's in the hands of James Potter, who I'm sure we're all rooting for!"  (Boos from the Slytherin end of the stands)  "Quaffle to Wickman—Oxley—back to Potter—who aimes—and HE SCORES!  TEN--ZERO TO GRYFFINDOR!"

The cheers from the stadium could have turned a cat deaf, and dozens of birds were roused from their nests in the top of the Forbidden Forest's tree canopy, almost drowning out the Slytherin groans.

"Well, that last one was too easy—can't expect Slytherins to take that sitting down, can we?  Oh-and they're not!—Oxley's broom handle just got almost snapped in half—nasty, cheating Bludger!  That was on purpose and you know it!"

"Ludren."  
  


"Right, right, sorry, Professor.  Fulford of Slytherin in possession of the Quaffle; he's looping around Racor and Andrews of Gryffindor there—this is a Quidditch game, [i]not[/i] a slalom competition!—still, Quaffle to Atherton—Rowlands—Atherton—and—MISS IT, MISS IT!!  Come on, Falner—oh, damn.  Slytherins score, score is ten to ten…"

The Slytherins were quickly pulling ahead.  Lucius, as team captain, obviously hadn't told them not to go against the Quidditch rules as long as they weren't caught.  Still, it was rather hard for anyone to miss the Slytherin Beater's attack on James with his club, and when James did a funny little flip in the air afterwards, Madam Hooch decided that Greenwood had made him lose control of his broom, and two fouls were accorded to Gryffindor.  One of them scored, and the Slytherin Keeper, Dramin, was being first slapped on the back with congratulations by his team and the next instant transformed into the recipient of several dozen malicious glares.

"GRYFFINDORS SCORE!  TWENTY--TEN TO GRYFFINDOR!  TAKE THAT, YOU POND SCUM!"  Ludren yelled happily into the magical microphone, which Professor McGonagall was eyeing warily, as if it were some sort of dangerous serpent.

"Okay, reformation essential; players drift to their respective sides of the field.  Potter in possession of the Quaffle…Potter diving down…down…oh, shooting straight up!  Straight up—the Slytherins dishuddle—if that's a word, which I doubt—they shoot away from him—only Dramin left there—Potter aims—HE SC—oh, bloody tentacles!  Quaffle stopped by Dramin…"

The Slytherin end was cheering madly, much to the dismay of the rest of the school.

"Okay, we've just got to make that up, then!  Quaffle in possession of Rowlands, …"

Several goals later, the score was forty-twenty for Slytherin, and Elya, the Gryffindor Seeker, was looking more than a bit frazzled as her eyes roved everywhere for the Snitch.  James had come close to getting knocked off of his broom—he had thrown himself in front of Rebecca, who was aiming for the goals, when a Bludger was whizzing towards her—and a Slytherin Chaser, Fulford, had a bloody nose he hadn't allowed anyone to mop up yet.

"Good grief, Fulford looks bad—not that I'm complaining, but still!  Okay, Rowlands of Slytherin in possession of the Quaffle—she streaks towards Oxley—almost rams her in the stomach with the broom—now [i]that[/i] should have been a foul!—but Oxley moves just in time; Quaffle flies to Atherton—Rowlands—Fulford—Atherton—Atherton scores—fifty-twenty for Slytherin," Ludren commented in the deadest voice he could summon up at a moment's notice.  The Slytherin cheers filled the stadium.

"Winters of Gryffindor sends a niice Bludger towards Rowlands—almost sends her flying there—don't worry, Winters, next time'll do it!  Quaffle in hands of James Potter—Potter flying towards goals—come on, come ON!—YES—POTTER SCORES—SCORE IS THIRTY-FIFTY TO GRYFFINDOR!"

Finally, the Gryffindor cheers raised the tops of the teacher's tent, and, grinning like a maniac, James did a funny little lap of honor halfway around the field, waving at the Gryffindor team's supporters, who started cheering loudly when he passed them.  All except Lily; that is—she thought he was being too much of a showoff, and besides, Lora and Sirius had taken those moments when they were cheering to damage her feet almost beyond repair.

"Oxley holding Quaffle—Oxley heading up the field—she leans back—and OUCH!!—square in the side with that bat!  Greenwood, watch where you're swinging that thing!  She's not a stinking Bludger, for screaming out silently—oh, good!  Gryffindor foul—Potter takes it—he aimes…HE SORES!!  FORTY-FIFTY TO GRYFFINDOR!  TAKE THAT, YOU FLYING DISEMBOWELED DRAGONFLY!!"

"LUDREN!"

"Oh, sorry, Professor," he apologized, "but if they [i]are[/i], then—"

"Do we have to get a new commentator?  This is going too far!"

"No, but see, Professor, I'm just telling it like it is!  It wouldn't be interesting if I didn't give the opinions of everyone in the stands!"

"Do you mean to say that every single student has ranked him- or herself on the sides of the Gryffindor team?"

"Exactly!"  Ludren smiled. 

"I am not going to stand for this?  Do you want a detention?"  
  


"Not particularly."

"Then stop sending out biased comments over a magical microphone that is at this point in time turned on!  Get on with the match!"

"All right, all right!" he grumbled.  "What's the score?" 

In the meantime, the Slytherins had scored once, making it sixty to forty for Slytherin.  The Gryffindors were still groaning their protests.

"Okay, it's forty for our favorite team and sixty for the hated enemies—I was joking, Professor!  Rowlands in charge of the Quaffle—she ducks around Potter's suicidal broom and self that has thrown himself in her way—she—ooh, the Snitch!  Look, look!  Dive!  Dive!  Dive!!!  Down there, Racor!  Get it—get it—knock him offa his broom—GRAB THE TAIL—ANYTHING—come ON!"

Elya and the Slytherin Seeker, Roger Knappett, were both streaking for a small golden speck in the middle of the left Slytherin goalpost's hoop—the other players were rushing out of their way right and left, and Rowlands had forgotten to throw the Quaffle; she sat on her broom poised in midair, with her arm lifted above her head, intently watching the two Seekers.

Lily, along with the rest of the stadium, was holding her breath—she could see them clearly, thanks to the sharp, almost telescopic vision from the elf-nymph grottos.  Elya was inches behind Knappett, and they were feet away from the Snitch—Lily clapped her hands over her mouth as Knappett reached for it…

"KNAPPETT CATCHES THE SNITCH—DAMN HIM—oh, wait a minute, what was [i]that[/i]"

…and then Lily saw an odd little lump travel down his sleeve and out of his robes…

He turned a funny little somersault in the air and tumbled onto the ground, five feet away, while Elya had caught the Snitch that had zoomed down his sleeve and out of the green robes.  She rose into the air, nearly beaming her mouth off, while her team instantly raced towards her, hugging her and the fist that held the Golden Snitch madly.  

They sank to the ground, cheering and yelling themselves hoarse, and over the tumultuous roar that covered the field as the school poured onto it, Ludren's voice could be heard, happily screaming, "KNAPPETT CAN'T CATCH AND GRYFFINDOR WINS ONE HUNDRED NINETY TO SIXTY!!"

Lily spied Severus and Lucius leaving the stands rather peevishly, and, in high spirits, she darted over to them, putting a hand on each of their shoulders.  They spun around immediately.

"Lily!" they exclaimed in unison.

She smiled.  "Hello.  Very nice match, by the way.  Congratulations, Lucius."

"What, congratulations?"  His face clouded over.  "We lost!"

"Only by a hair," Lily said, still beaming.  "Come on—I'm inviting you both to a celebration feast the Gryffindor team's hosting."

Lucius scowled.  "I'm not going—it's just to see them gloat over us.  Besides, I'm their enemy."

"Oh, no, you're not," Lily said calmly.  "The Ravenclaw team was their opponent at the last Quidditch match, and they're being welcomed with open arms.  I want you two to come."  
  


"I'm not," Lucius shrugged.  

"I am, though," Severus decided instantly.  "I'd rather."

Lucius stared at him in astonishment, and Lily smiled at him.  

"Thanks, Severus—Lucius, sure you won't change your mind?"  
  


"I'm positive," Lucius said cuttingly.  "I'll live without it."  He left the grounds for the castle, and Lily looked back at Severus, who shrugged.

"I don't care.  You sure?"  
  


"Sure I'm sure," she laughed, "if you're my friend, you're coming.  No questions asked."  
  


"Fine," he agreed.  "Now, where is this feast you speak so highly of?"

The Gryffindors had their feast on the lawns that night; it was a warm April evening, and Sirius, Remus, and Peter had unraveled their plans to a few of the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, who had been assigned the responsibility of sneaking the House tables from the Great Hall and carrying them out to the acres of grass near the lake.  They surrounded a good bit of land, when placed in a U-form with spaces at the corners, and they were now official buffet tables.  

The linen tablecloths had also been hooked, and Sirius and Remus had charmed the four long tables in the kitchens below the Great Hall that sent food up to the Hall tables to send their load up to the new arrangement, although the tables were on the lawns.  True, their feast could have been stopped by the teachers, but Remus had procured a written note from Professor Dumbledore, saying that they were allowed to have their feast outside, which Sirius took to mean that they were permitted to bring food outside, as a feast was constituted mainly of food, and there were ants and fairy dust in the grass, so it would be unsanitary not to use tables, and as there were no other available tables that they knew of, these were the only choice.  Even Professor McGonagall assented to that line of logic after she had been presented with it; though she warned them to have everything cleaned up by ten o'clock.

The trophy was set in the middle of the center buffet table; it presided over everyone that night—tall and golden, with the Snitch poised atop it, wings fluttering gracefully, and with the winning team's House and names engraved into the base of it.  The Quidditch team was grouped around it, and cameras were snapping everywhere.  From somewhere, Sirius had persuaded a couple of groups of fairies to sit on the tables and inside bushes and trees as decorations, and they were fluttering and twinkling beautifully.

Lily led Severus over to one of the tables and handed him one of the golden plates.  "Help yourself."

He smiled at her, but the next instant he stiffened, looking at someone over her shoulder.  Lily spun around.

"Oh—hello—"

"What is [i]he[/i] doing here?"  the arrival asked, looking Severus up and down as if he were an extremely squashed and large cockroach.

"He's my guest," Lily glared; "do you have anything against that?"

"Yeah," James scowled—he had come over to get some dessert—"he's a [i]Slytherin.[/i]"  
  


"So?"  Lily asked, her face almost frozen in a glare.

"So he's our opponent, our enemy!"

"James," Lily said quietly, "correct me if I am wrong, but is that Ravenclaw Chaser holding hands with Rebecca or not?"  
  


James swiveled.  "Yeah.  So what?"  
  


"I am getting tired of the word 'so'.  In other words, he was your opponent, too, and Severus wasn't even on the team.  You're being ridiculous," she almost spat out, each syllable drawn-out and tinged with contempt.

He frowned.  "Don't let me hold you up, then.  Have fun with your boyfriend—husband—fiancé—whatever he is," James said, waving one hand around as if it had lost its bones all of a sudden.  "Far be it from me to hold you two up."  
  


"James," Lily said quietly, "someone wants you back in your crowd of admirers."

"Really?"  James swiveled.  "Who?"

"Me," Lily glared.

"Okay, okay!" he mumbled, "some friend you are."  He left the table and rejoined his friends, who immediately cleared a path for him to the Quidditch Cup.

Severus put a hand on Lily's shoulder.  "You know, you didn't have to stand up for me.  I could have done that…"

"Severus," Lily interrupted, "I don't want either you or James to get into a fight while we're having a feast.  No one out here has a tendency towards having body parts in their pudding."

He grinned at her.  "I guess you're right."

Lily smiled.  "I hope I am.  Chocolate cake or chocolate gateau?" she asked, holding a plate in each hand, weighing them in an imitation of a scale.

The rest of the afternoon was hot and sunny; and the night was beautiful; moonlight settled over the clouds at eight, and it twinkled merrily on the lake, which was constantly moving; three mermaids and one merman had popped out of the water, and they were being treated with butterbeer and several different foods from the tables.  Lily noticed that they were quite like Litharelen, only not so much like the picture of the mermaid that hung in the prefect's bathroom; their silver fishtails caught the candlelight from the tables, and the dark green eyes sparkled warily.  Without meaning to, Lily sighed softly.

"I wonder how Tom's bearing up…" she murmered.

"Tom?" Severus asked.

Lily started.  "Oh, just a former friend."

"Former friend—he's not anymore?"

"I suppose he is," Lily edged.

Severus frowned.  "What's his last name?"

"Why?"  Lily stiffened.  This wasn't good.

"I want to know…I think I know who he is, that's all."  
  


Lily flitted to her feet and started walking away.  Severus jumped up and followed her, taking her arm.

"What's this; why're you so nervous?"

"Nothing," Lily said firmly.

"Lily—I won't ask you to tell me anything—but is his name Tom Riddle?"

Lily couldn't hide her astonishment.  Eyes wide and short of breath, she swiveled towards Severus, who was gazing thoughtfully at her through clear, black eyes.  "[i]What[/i]"

He turned her back around, and they started on a walk around the lake.  "It wasn't too hard to figure out."

"How?—" she breathed.  
  


Severus shrugged.  "Lucius' father's part of his band of Death Eaters—and I know his fiancée was murdered after Halloween.  It wasn't hard to put together—you were staring at the mermaids, and I know she was an elf-nymph.  They're not that different, actually."

Lily smiled weakly.  "You're very perceptive."  
  


"Thanks; I try," he grinned.  Then his face grew more serious.

"Lily, I heard something about him having a brilliant little sidekick, one that's wonderful with the pentacorn he owns and that saved his fiancée's life…"  His eyes were questioning now as they fastened upon her.

Lily shook her long, auburn hair back from her shoulders; she didn't care anymore; he knew too much, and he was safe—besides, he could find out anyway.

"You're right.  I did help him.  I was involved with his band of Death Eaters, and I did help heal Litharelen when she was injured.  I can ride Svordsja.  What else?"

"Nothing," Severus ventured—"nothing—I didn't mean for you to blurt this out to me…"

They were next to the edge of the Forbidden Forest by now, and the noise from the feast had dwindled to a far-off tinkle of plates and  shouts.  They were very well hidden from sight; which was quite advantageous for their conversation.

"I didn't blurt it out.  You knew already, Severus—it's not as if I kept anything important from you.  You're very smart; you know that?"  
  


Even in the darkness, she could see his cheekbones turning red.  "Thanks," he mumbled.  "Nothing compared to you, though."

"While I'm at it," Lily continued, "I'd better tell you how I got there.  Still, if Tom finds out, I'm as good as dead," she said in the tone of someone talking about tomorrow's forecasted rainstorm.

"Remember when I got locked into the dungeon in first year?" she asked.

Severus frowned.  "Of course."

"You got me out of there—and you gave me [i]this[/i] in the hospital wing."  Lily had pulled out her necklace from underneath her robes; she took it off and let it glide into Severus' hands.  He touched it gently, then pressed it into her hand and closed her fingers around it.

"Yes; what about it?"  
  


"It transports me to the Alendoren Cove—which was where Tom had his hideout and where Litharelen lived.  He told me that it would give him ultimate power over all mortals, which is why I'm rather desperate to keep it from him."  Lily wasn't looking at him; she was staring straight ahead at nothing; only she knew how much his answer would mean to her.

"Well, then."  Severus draped an arm over her shoulder, which was tense and unyielding.  "That makes me desperate to keep him from it, too, doesn't it?"

He had never seen such relief as showed itself in her face after he said that.  She turned to face him, her eyes alight with some inner joy, a smile sparkling at the corners of her mouth.

"Thank you."

He hugged her slightly.  "No problem whatsoever."  

She turned to the lake and the looming castle again, but she felt more reassured and comforted than she had in ages; what had just happened between them was more than their words could ever have signified, was more than words could ever describe.

They drifted back to the edge of the lake, where Lily quickly noted that they hadn't, to any obvious extent, been missed at all.  Not that she normally would have been, but she suspected that the Marauders would be disappointed at not finding a good prank subject—the one she knew their minds would instantly flit to was Severus.  Still, as she cast a glance over the students, she noticed nothing wrong, which was a relief.  They reassumed their walk around the lake.

After about ten minutes of walking in the dusk, Severus was the first to break the silence.  

"Lily, I want you to know I really do appreciate your trusting me with this."

She smiled and waved a hand, as if to say it was nothing, though they both knew better.  "Nonsense.  You would have found out anyway.  Besides—I trust you."

She could sense his cheeks turning faintly red again.  "Thanks," he mumbled.

Lily didn't ask him not to tell anyone; she knew he wouldn't.  And he, on his part, was grateful to her for thinking so highly of him so that she felt she didn't need to ask.  

They didn't say much as they walked back around the lake and rejoined the students that were stuffing themselves without a care in the world.  Sirius and James saw them as they returned, but didn't say anything; they just cast a glance at each other, raised their eyebrows, nodded, and turned back to their fans.

That evening, at around eleven o'clock, Lily had changed and was already in a nightgown when she hit her head lightly with the flat of her palm.  She'd left her schoolbag down in the common room last night.  Quickly, she threw on her dressing gown and flitted downstairs, scooped up the bag, and started for the marble dormitory stairs, when a voice stopped her.

"Hey—where're you going so fast?"  
  


Lily spun around.  "Oh.  Sirius.  I only came down to get my books—" she held out her bag.

"I see." Sirius nodded.  "Still, I guess I—in the name of all the Marauders—want to ask you something."  
  


She set her jaw; she had an idea of what was coming.  "What?"

"Where did you go with Snape this evening?"

Lily had expected this; she let her bag fall to the floor and crossed her arms.  "No."  
  


"No what?"  Sirius was confused.

"No.  That's all, just no."  
  


"You mean you're not telling?"  
  


"Boy, are you smart," she scoffed.  "Of course I'm not; you've got no business knowing absolutely everything about me.  I don't know why, every time I spend [i]any[/i] time with him at all, you four always have to know what goes on while I'm with him."

Sirius sighed and stood up; he knew he'd started wrong.  "Lily, I didn't mean it that way.  We're worried about you; that's all—he's a Slytherin, and—well, you're pretty…We just don't want him to get away with anything he might do, that's all," he finished rather lamely.

"Thanks for the concern," Lily remarked dryly.  Then her tone changed; she sounded like a mother tigress defending her children.

"It wouldn't enter his head to do anything to me that even comes near what's revolving in your one-track minds.  He's kind, sweet, nice, supportive—everything you four [i]haven't[/i] been over the years.  He's stood by me through everything I've been through, and he's the best friend I could ever hope for.  Satisfied?  Or not—have I damaged your wonderfully nasty opinions of a Slytherin wretch?"  

Sirius backed down under her glare.

"No--Lily, it's not that."

"What is it, then?" She was still angry.

"Lily, his friends are joining that Death Eater, that Voldemort rat, the one that's killed two families down in Kent so far.  You're Muggle-born, and Voldemort hates Muggles beyond anything else.  If Snape joins him—which I know he will—you'll be in danger.  Very great danger."  
  


Lily tossed her head; she knew better.  "I am not in danger.  Lord Voldemort is not going to kill me."  
  


"And how are you so certain?"  Sirius moved towards her and put a hand on each of her shoulders.  "He hates Muggle-borns; you know he does!  All that stuff that's been in the paper tells of him killing Muggles and plotting against Muggle-born wizards.  [i]We don't want you to die, don't you understand?[/i]"

She smiled almost vaguely; she was remembering Litharelen.

"Sirius, he won't touch me.  I give you my word for that.  Not with a curse nor anything else.  Go back to bed; you're talking blarney."

Sirius didn't let the subject drop, but he couldn't get anything else out of Lily, and, after leaving the common room and reaching his dormitory, he moodily reported to his friends.

"She stood up for Snape."  
  


James sighed.  "We'd practically expected that.  What'd she say about him?"

"He's nice and noble and sweet and lots of other stuff--I'd be sick if I related them to you.  That should give you the gist, anyhow."

Remus fell back against his pillow.  "What'd she say about Voldemort?"

Sirius shrugged.  "Nothing.  Not really.  She just told me that he wasn't going to hurt her, and that I should back off.  That you three should, too."  He flung himself onto his bed and stared at the ceiling.  "I'm worried about her.

"As are we all," James snapped.  "But I do think you should take her word for everything concerning T—er--Voldemort.  I think she knows more about him than we think…"

Sirius had pushed himself to a sitting position.  "Oh, really?  What makes you think that?"  
  


"Nothing," James blushed, "nothing."  
  


"Liar."  By now the three of them had surrounded James' four-poster.  "Tell.  We're the Marauders; we tell anything."

Remus' eyes were narrowed.  "Does this have anything to do with what we didn't see on the map?"

"Huh?"  
  


"James, you idiot, you know perfectly well.  As soon as we made that map, we saw that sometimes Lily wouldn't be on it at all, no matter where in the castle we looked.  You said you'd find out, and you never told us if you found out anything.  I think this is the time to tell us."  
James' eyes opened wide.  He couldn't tell them; he couldn't—this was Lily's secret; it wasn't his, no matter how much he wished it was.

"I can't tell you," he said curtly.

"Oh, yes, you can," Sirius stated coolly, sitting down on the edge of the bed.  "We've got all night."  
  


"Sirius."  James turned around and glared at his friend, something he hardly ever did in earnest.  "I can't tell you.  Ask her—she might tell you, but I'm not entitled to."

"Oh, right," Peter scoffed.  "You just don't want to admit you took her to Hogsmeade or somewhere when you were supposed to be spying.  How many times've you kissed her, huh?"  
  


James swiveled.  "Peter, you've said enough.  Shut.  Up.  Now."  

Peter cringed almost invisibly, and, satisfied, James turned to Remus and Sirius.  

"Okay, okay, so I can't tell you what she was doing, but it wasn't what Peter just said."  He fell back against his pillow, telling himself that this was going to be an extremely stupid revelation. 

"I'd much rather have been doing what he described, though."

"[i]WHAT?[/i]"  The three others in the room exploded with the same word, and Frank Longbottom, who had the fifth bed in the dormitory, good-naturedly yelled at them to shut up, then turned around and resumed sleeping.

Peter almost fell down.  "You would have rather been doing [i]what?[/i]"

Sirius almost couldn't speak.  "What—what—You're a [i]Marauder[/i], for Pete's sake—you can't—you can't—"

"You're not in love, you prat, are you?"  This surprised James, because Remus was usually calm.

"No, I'm not!—I just…I just like her, that's all," he covered with an utterly nonconvincing shrug as he sat up again.

Sirius frowned.  "And for how long?  Do you realize we tell each other everything—EVERYTHING?"

James sighed.  "I don't know.  I guess—fourth year, fifth year.  Something like that.  It seems like forever."

"I thought as much," Sirius mused.  "Way back when you handed in your Anatomy homework—well, whatever subject it was—and said it was hers…"  
  


"So it's not a random little infatuation with the punch in the jaw she'd give you if she found out?"

"Peter!"  Remus glared.  "Don't say that—hey, we don't know she'll do that, do we?"  
  


"Yeah, it's a toss-up between the left hook and the knee in the groin," James said dryly.  "I haven't got a chance."  
  


Sirius nodded slowly.  "Why haven't you got a chance?"

Peter had been itching to say something for the last few minutes, and now he had his chance.  "So do you want me to tell Lily tomorrow?"

"NO!"  This could have come from ten voiceboxes, judging from the amount of volume James produced.  "Peter, don't you [i]dare![/i]"

"Why not?  She's nice to you, isn't she?"  
  


James sighed.  "I know, I know.  But it seems that no matter how nice she is to me, she still hates me desperately underneath.  I don't know what to do."

Frank's voice floated from across the room.  "Okay, either invite me to join in to the conversation or keep it down!"

"Okay, come on, join us," Sirius griped as Frank, grinning, swung his feet out of bed.

"So what's this I hear about James?"  
  


"He's in love with Lily Evans," Peter said smugly.

James snapped around.  "PETER!"

"I'm sorry!" he whined.  "But you are, aren't you?"

Sirius smacked him on the back of the head.  "Peter, you prat, he's not old enough to know what love is.  Grow up."  He turned to Frank.  "Only problem dear James has is that she's one of those lovely delinquents that hate the thought of romance.  Besides, she hates his twisted guts."  
  


"Ah," Frank nodded.  "I see."

"As do we all," Sirius sighed.  "Oh, the twisted complications and triangles of love!"

"[i]Triangles![/i]" James almost spat out.  "What?"

"Snape, James," all four of the boys told him.

"Oh."  James cheered up.  "Well, that's good, then!"

"How—good?"  Remus was curious.

"Well—she'd never be interested in someone like him!  And—and besides, he's a Slytherin.  Lily knows better than that."  Even in his own mind the words sounded stupid.

Sirius snorted.  "James, you're a bloody idiot.  Remember what I just said?  She said she didn't care if he was a Slytherin or not; she said that he was extremely nice and sweet and I don't know what all."

"Yeah," Peter echoed.  "Remember?"

If James had been a girl, the noise he let out could have been a whimper.  "I know."

"And what about that Richard kid she got that ring from?" Remus asked, and both Sirius' and James' eyes turned quickly to large dinner plates.

"I forgot about him," James mumbled.

"Obviously," Remus commented.  "And he's more likely to get her than Snape is."

"But he's a [i]Muggle,[/i]" James almost wailed.  "She [i]can't[/i]!"

"James, hate to break it to you, but this is Lily," Sirius sighed.  "She'll do what she wants to, and if you tell her not to, she will, just to spite you.  And it always turns out okay for her in the end, so she hasn't learned the meaning of the phrase 'cutting off your nose to spite your face'."

Frank nodded.  "This I can confirm."

"You're also remembering Serena, aren't you?" Sirius, as usual, had mentioned one more down side.

"Damn."  James hit his skull against the headboard of the four-poster.  "Ow."

"I take that as a no."  Remus almost smiled.  "You know, for the Head Boy, you really are a bit clueless."  
  


"Gee, thanks," James snapped.  "You four, go to bed!"

He was surprised when they obeyed.

That night, only Frank, Remus, and Peter slept well.  James, for obvious reasons, was tossing and turning and throwing pillows off of his bed for the entire night, and Sirius was lying in his own four-poster, staring at the ceiling.  Both of them were thinking the same thing.

"If Snape gets to her first, I don't know what I'll do."

At around five in the morning, both of them pulled aside their curtains at exactly the same time.  They grinned weakly at each other.

"Better hope Frank's not a blabbermouth, huh?" James said wearily.

"Let's hope," Sirius agreed.


	62. Guys

Guys, I have NO idea what is going on with the paragraphs and the jammed- together lines.I tried double-spacing, but it's not working.I've got no idea as to what to do, besides turn this into a sequel. 


	63. A first kiss,,,yeah, right Not with Lil...

Rather dismally, they showered and got dressed, both of them arriving downstairs together.  James looked at the Potions essay he had due on Monday, and that he hadn't finished yet.  
"I'd better get started on that, then," he mumbled.  

"Sure," Sirius agreed.  He flung himself down on a sofa, staring at the ceiling.  The only sound for several minutes was the scratching of James' quill, the crumplings of parchment bits, the flicking of pages in James' Potions book, and his frustrated grunts as he threw his quill in the fire, then singed his eyebrows neatly as he retrieved it.

"Smart, James," Sirius commented absently.

"Yeah, I know," James groaned.  "Now I've got no eyebrows.  At least Snape has those."  
"Don't worry about Snape.  He asked her out during Christmas break in fourth year, remember?  And she said no."  
"Yeah, because she was too young," James grumbled.  "She's sixteen now.  Almost seventeen.  And as far as I know, she hasn't even kissed anyone yet."  
"You're complaining?"

"No…no, I'm not!  I'm not," he said.  "Well, maybe.  What if—what if—"

Sirius sighed.  "What if what?"

"Er—well, you know I've not the nerve to ask her anything of this sort, don't you?"  
"What sort?" Sirius asked innocently.

"Please, don't start.  You're just better at talking to girls than I am…er—rephrase that.  We're all good at talking to girls we don't like.  Do you think you could talk to her for me?"

_So I don't like Lily,_ Sirius thought dryly.  _You have no idea_.

Aloud he said, "Okay, shoot."

"Shoot?"  James was confused.

"Yeah; what do you want me to say to her?"  
"Oh."  

"Exactly," Sirius commented.  "And I'm not talking to you for her."

"Why not?"  James looked hurt.  "I thought we were supposed to be best friends or something in that area!"

Sirius rolled his eyes.  "We still are.  It's just that if you don't do this, then you won't have the guts to do anything else, like offer her a wedding ring."

He knew perfectly well what he was doing.  Sirius knew that, one, James wouldn't have the nerve, and two, if he did, Lily would discourage every hope he had somehow.  At least, he was praying for that.  He _couldn't_ go up to her and to ask her if she liked his best friend in a more than friendly way when _he liked that same girl_.  It just wouldn't work out well.  

Yes, James was his best friend—but James got everything else, always—and he'd been cruel to this girl so many times, and then Sirius had been there for her, and _she'd cried into his bloody shirt_, for crying out loud.  She'd trusted him with stuff…she'd confided in him…and, anyway, James wasn't exactly terribly nice to her, and if he _had_ liked her since fourth or fifth year, then he showed it in an awfully odd way…

Fortunately for him, James wasn't psychic, so he just sighed and stared into the fire.  "Thanks, Sirius…I guess I'd better."

"Go for it, then."

"But I don't know…"  Unconsciously, James raised a hand and tried to make his hair lie flat.  "What if I get scared or something and she thinks I'm an utter pillock?"

"She does already," Sirius grinned.  "Go dispel that illusion."

"But…"

"But what?"  

James threw more bits of paper into the fire, causing it to flare up.  "I don't know how to act around her."

"Then learn," Sirius said brutally.  

"Wow," James commented.  "Some friend."

"It's five-thirty in the morning, and I haven't slept all night.  I'm not a morning person, as you should know."

"I do know.  So—hey, I need help.  What do I do about Lily?"

Sirius shrugged; then his eyes lit up almost unnoticeably.  "Speak of the devil."

Lily hadn't slept too well that night for some reason—after Sirius finished talking to her, she'd heard faint yells from the boys' dormitory, and she simply couldn't fall asleep after that.  What on earth was so wrong with her standing up for Severus—or liking him, for that matter?  Simply because he was in a different House didn't give four bigheaded Gryffindors the right to dump on him every single time they saw him.  As far as she could see, it was unreasonable hatred on both sides.

Finally, Lily gave up on sleep and threw her dressing gown on; with a Herbology book in her hands, she stepped downstairs quietly; only five steps away from the common room did she catch Sirius' eyes and the last few words of the conversation.

James was glaring at the fire, and something had happened to his now nonexistent eyebrows.  "What do I do about Lily?"

That was when Sirius had seen her white nightgown and half-smiled at her, shrugging.  "Speak of the devil."

Lily smiled faintly and moved into the common room, the train of her nightgown trailing behind her.  "Up early, are we?  What happened to you two?"

"Why?"  Both of them were confused.

She laughed.  "James, you're missing your eyebrows, and both of you are up before seven.  This calls for an explanation."

"Oh…"  James shrugged, shamefacedly trying to cover up his forehead.  "I couldn't sleep."

"Ah."  Sirius nodded.  "I suppose I'll use the same excuse.  I couldn't sleep."  
Lily tossed her hair over her shoulder, laughing again.  "I thought I'd come down here to study, but I guess that's going up in smoke."

"Yep," James nodded philosophically.  "Thou shalt not have the semblance of an idea concerning studying around any member of the Marauders."

"Oh, really?"

"I made it up, but so what?"  
James had been shooting Sirius several death glares, and finally Sirius decided that eavesdropping would be much more fun than mooching around the common room.  Stretching a bit for Lily's benefit, he stood up.

"I'm leaving.  Need to catch up on sleep," he muttered.

He dragged himself out of the common room, and, to break the newly-frozen ice, Lily ventured a question.

"What were you two talking about before I came in?"

He turned his attention to his essay again.  "Oh—nothing, really.  Not anything you'd be interested in."

"I heard my name," she stated calmly.  

"It wasn't anything about you—well, not really."

"Not _really_?"  She was eyeing him with suspicion now—had he told Sirius anything about Tom—about Voldemort, that is, and her affiliation with him?  

"No."  James broke the conversation off.  "It wasn't."

She felt slightly hurt; she hadn't said a thing to him that could possibly, to her mind, be construed into anything rude, and here he was, being an unreasonable prat to her.  Almost unconsciously, she drew up her barrier; the one that prevented anyone from reaching in to her.

"Have it your way."  Her tone had changed; it was scathing and scornful; just the way she felt.  James looked up, and she could see the surprise in his eyes.

"Hey, what'd I do this time?"

"You were rude," she stated clearly.

"What—How was I rude?"

Lily just looked at him.

"Never mind."

"I thought so."

Lily mentally hit herself; even if he did have something against Severus, and even if he was perfectly willing to do anything to break the two of them up, she really had no right to be this mean.  Unbeknownst to her, he was thinking almost the same thing.

_You think you bloody love her, for cursing Snape out satisfactorily_, (he was getting sick of the phrase 'crying out loud') _and here you are, being a prat to the girl you'd most want to be anything else to._  He let his head drop onto a pile of books, and it responded with a painful smack.  Lily started.

"James, are you all right?"

He had hit his head on his Transfiguration book—maybe because he was tired, and it had startled her momentarily.  She whirled around, eyes full of concern piercing his gaze, which quickly dropped.

"No—_yes_, I'm all right.  I'm just being stupid…"

"You sure you are?"

"Yeah…hey!  That was not nice!"

Lily was slightly puzzled, but she didn't let him know.  "What wasn't?"

"You just made me call myself stupid, didn't you?"

He hit himself again.  "I shouldn't have pointed that out!"

She laughed again.  "True.  I hadn't noticed that before."

Sirius was sitting moodily on the marble steps of the boys' dormitory.  _So much for leaving them alone to fight_, he thought.

He walked back downstairs, gracefully tripping over the hem of his pajamas and tumbling to the foot of the stairs.  Lily whirled around.

"Sirius—You all right?"

"Sure, sure—fine."  Sirius obviously didn't want this to be commented on, so Lily let it drop.

"Okay, then."

She turned back to her book a few minutes later; the boys obviously didn't want her around, but she had no intention of leaving just for their benefit.  Frustrated for some reason, she curled up in the armchair and almost completely blocked herself from anything or anyone else in the common room as her mind dived into the book.

A half hour later, though, she couldn't have told an interrogator what had been on the last fifty pages.  Lily had been musing…why weren't the boys acting as usual?  First they were up at five in the morning, secondly, when she came down and tried talking to them, they tried to avoid her and she almost got into a fight with James for no reason at all…

Loudly, she slammed her book shut and stood up, slipping it onto the table, ignoring the stares she knew she was receiving.  She had to do something to sort out this confusion in her mind, and she did the best thing she could think of—left the common room without so much as a word for anyone, and strode lightly towards the entrance hall.

The stone walls, for the first time in weeks, were stifling her—she had to get outside, must do something—couldn't stay cooped up in a castle forever—

With difficulty, she unbolted the large front doors and pushed one of them open only wide enough for her to slip through.  Stepping outside, Lily stood up straighter as the wet, dewy air sank into her mouth and flowed down her throat.  She hadn't done this in ages and it felt wonderful…

Ever since Litharelen died, she had tried to push away all thoughts of her friend.  Now, they flooded back…

Lily hadn't ever really liked Litharelen; she had vaguely been annoyed by her at times, but Lith was the one that had taught her to ride; she had been Lily's first acquaintance in Albania—and apart from everything else that had to do with her, Tom had loved Litharelen, and still did.  A lump rose in Lily's throat as she recalled the pain in Tom's face as he caught her moments after her death, as she was falling to the ground.

Tears blinded her; they ran down her face and intermingled with the wet dew on her dressing gown as she leaned against a supporting tree; they were running for Tom—for the life he was facing now—

The lake waters she was fixedly staring at rippled softly as a small bird skimmed the top of it and flew off into the distance.  She gazed at it until it flew behind a cloud and was hidden from her sight.

Lily didn't even notice that someone had caught up with her until he slipped his arm through hers.  "What's wrong?"

She turned to him, not bothering to wipe her tears away.  "I don't suppose you would take the excuse 'Nothing', would you?"

James put an arm around her shoulders.  "If it makes you happy, sure, I'll accept it."

Lily was surprised; she took a step back and passed her hand across her eyes, removing the waterfalls in her eyelashes.  "Why aren't you tormenting me for a reason?"  
"You don't look in the mood for it," he said simply.

She wasn't crying any more, but in gratefulness, she let her head bury itself in his shoulder, and both of them stayed there, almost unmoving; the only thing that separate them from wax figures was the continual small, quick breaths Lily was taking in, trying to stop, but not being able to.

Finally, when she had calmed down, Lily turned away again, almost as if she were embarrassed to be seen while she was at one of the weakest points in her life.  "Why did you follow me?"  
"I figured something was wrong."  He didn't try to turn her around, and Lily was thankful for that.  "I was worried, that's all."

She nodded vaguely and he could tell she wasn't absorbing anything he had just said; her eyes were fixed on the rising sun.

Suddenly, she pivoted to face him, holding onto his arm with a death grip, one that almost made him lose the feeling in it.

"It's Tom.  I can't help it—you have no idea what he's facing, how much he loved Litharelen—and now she's gone, and the first thing he was living for is destroyed.  I—I'm glad now he desperately wants power, otherwise this would consume him, eat away at him; he'd leave the world and sit somewhere, cut off from all people, waiting to die, helping the process if it didn't go quickly enough."  

She took a deep breath and went on.  "I know he's a murderer, James, but no matter what he's done, he's a person, too.  He loved her…so much it hurt."

Lily finally looked at him, not through him, and smiled slightly, releasing her grip on his arm.  "I know I've never loved, and I know you're being skeptical of what I tell you, since you think I'm making this up—James, even murderers can feel, and this one is almost past the brink.  He's in trouble.  I don't care what he did—no human deserves a fate like he's facing."

"Hey!"  James took her chin in his hand.  "I did _not_ say I didn't believe you."

He looked at her eyes for a split second, trying to summon up the courage he thought was buried somewhere in him.  Then he almost exploded inside.

_Oh, go to hell with courage!  Go ahead!  Who knows—yeah, exactly, who knows?  You prat—you idiot, you might not have another chance—_

He couldn't do it.  He couldn't.  What if she hated him from this day forth—but then again, why should she?  It wasn't as if he was blowing up Hogwarts…go on, she might want you to—is that why she's not moving?  Or is she just waiting for an answer—and is she going to hate me for all eternity—oh, what the _hell_!

He didn't care anymore—didn't care if this would blow up the whole stinking globe—not now.  Not now.  Maybe he'd regret it later, but every single thought of remorse was banned from entering his conscious thoughts.

Slowly, he leaned forward…the world was rushing and whirling in his ears—almost—

She turned her head away.  Quickly, rapidly, swiftly as thought, and James could have hit himself.  _I_ _should have foreseen that_, he thought.  What were we talking about earlier?  Cover—do _something_—just so she won't avoid you—

He faintly smiled at her, knowing she could see him out of the corner of her eye.  "I hadn't the slightest intention of doubting anything you say."

On her part, Lily could have strangled herself at first, but then she was relieved she'd turned away.  Something had quelled up inside her throat and mind, and, afraid of an unnamed something—it could have been him living Tom's fate when she got herself killed someday—she turned away purposely, staring at the lake again.  And seconds after that, she wanted to hit herself—_you wanted him to, didn't you, Lily?  You just messed up a chance in a lifetime!_

Then the relief set in; he had simply leaned closer so she wouldn't miss what he said.  Would she have missed it if he hadn't leaned closer?  She couldn't tell; an echoing uproar was resounding inside her ears; she heard nothing except his words, almost faint and coming as from far away.

"I hadn't the slightest intention of doubting anything you say."

She had the worst imagination in the world—actually hoping that he thought of her that way…she _knew_ it wasn't true, knew it was hopeless—

Dimly, she heard herself reply, in the calmest tones she could unconsciously summon up.  

"Well, that's a first."

She tilted her head at him, he was still grinning at her.  "I suppose," James said.

He took her arm and turned her towards the castle.  "Hey—it's cold and wet out here—you want to come back inside?"

"Sure."  She shouldn't have come outside; shouldn't have let him find her, shouldn't anything she just did, besides turn away.  Now she was thanking every deity she knew of on spiritually bended knees for her acting ability, for the fact that she could hide what she was feeling.  It was immeasurably valuable to her, and she couldn't think of what would be happening now if she didn't own that streak of her mother's.

They walked back to the common room, where Sirius was still sitting.  James had begged him to stay there seconds before he sprinted out of the common room—and, for some unknown reason, he hadn't followed James.  

Lily only saw him through a mist covering her eyes.  She half-smiled at him, then let go of James' arm.

"I'd better go upstairs and change—heaven knows how cold I feel."

"You do that," James said, and, as he saw the last flash of her hair fade into the torchlight of the girls' staircase, he let himself fall into a heavily pillowed couch.

"Padfoot, I am cursed."

Sirius frowned.  "How so?"

James clutched a handful of hair in one fist, yanking on it, trying to pull it out.  "I could have.  I was so close.  I—_oh, damn_."

Sirius raised his eyebrows.  "Sounds like someone needs moral support.  Want to tell me what happened?"  
"Sure," James shrugged.  "Why not."  He sat back on the sofa, finally letting go of his hair, and not even wincing as his head hit the edge of the table next to the couch with a loud crack.

"We were talking—then, for no reason, she started crying.  She gave me the reason—told me why, and then said something like she didn't know why she was telling me this because I'd probably not believe her.  I dunno why I did this—it wasn't for that purpose, but I did take her chin and make her look at me…I said something dumb like how I never said I didn't believe her."

"And?"  Sirius was interested now.

"And then—I don't know; it was like my thoughts exploded in my head, and then I pushed them all away…I dunno.  I leaned towards her…and then she turned away.  It wasn't a stupid accident, either—she knew what I thought I was going to do, and she just…oh, bloody hell!"  He let his hands cover his face again.  

"I covered…I said something like I'd never doubt her…She said, 'Well, that's a first.'  _Like nothing had happened._  Like she wanted to ignore it—no, not like that—just like everything had been erased, and like it had never happened."

"What'd you say then," Sirius asked.  Inwardly he was relieved.  _So she didn't like James that way_.

"Something else stupid…as usual.  Then I said something about going inside, and she said sure…I am _cursed_!"

Sirius sighed, and Remus took this moment to appear in the common room.

"What's going on?  James?  Sirius, he looks sick."

"He is," Sirius almost grinned; "he is.  Lovesick."

"I am _not_!"  James snapped.  "I just—I—oh, what the hell."  He buried his face in his hands again.

Remus looked at Sirius.  "He just swore. James never does that, except when something big happens.  What just happened that I missed?"

"Okay," Sirius smiled innocently, "prepare yourself for a good laugh."

"SIRIUS!" 

"Prongs, it _is_."

Letting himself fall onto the floor.  "I'm up for a story!  Tell.  Tell.  Tell."

"You sure, Moony, old friend, old pal?  You know, two days before your—er—problems, you honestly shouldn't have any excitement…"  Sirius was having fun.

"SIRIUS!"

"Okay; fine--I declare myself overwhelmed," Sirius amended.  "Sit.  Listen.  Be prepared."

"Prepared for what?"

"Listen means don't talk."

"Listening!"

"Okay then.  See, Lily came into the common room this morning around five thirty…"

To James' relief, Remus hadn't laughed.  He simply frowned.

"James, this is an odd situation."

"Yeah; you think I didn't notice that?"  
"I hope you did!  Otherwise I'd have a really bad opinion of your powers of perception."

Upstairs, Lily didn't care how many people she woke up while burrowing through her trunk for clothing.  Her hand landed on the silk of the dress robes he had bought her, and, wonder in her forest-green eyes, she lifted then up, touching the silk.

The memory of that day flooded over her…especially what he'd said to her.  "You look beautiful."

He'd never said anything like that to her before…he'd never said anything of that nature…

Suddenly, Lily couldn't wait for the end of term to arrive.  Did he still think of her like that?—could he ever…

That was the last time she had the leisure to think about that morning; though the week after next was Easter holidays, the seventh years had more work piled upon them than ever before, what with their graduation exams and the Apparition tests and optional exams that would give them extra titles—like a doctor's degree in Muggle colleges, only these licensed a wizard or witch to perform certain spells that were forbidden to the rest of the wizarding world.  

Needless to say, the Unforgivable Curses were not allowed by any means, but there were still some that not everyone was empowered to use, like conjuring up buildings out of the air, which was forbidden in the wizarding world, as then no one would be buying houses at all; the same went for food.  Lily, needless to say, was taking all of these, and James was taking most of them.

Every teacher they had was trying to suffocate them under piles of parchment and ink and books—and Remus wasn't, as usual, excused from it whenever he transformed.  Usually, the teachers wouldn't give him the work—well, besides Professor McGonagall, who gave him extra sessions after he returned to his normal schedule.

The rings around his eyes were growing more pronounced than ever; he usually didn't look this exhausted after a transformation, but now, what with the lack of sleep, he was starting to look a bit frightening; the Slytherins found lots of time to snicker about his appearance every time he passed them in the corridors.

Lily stopped that, though; she caught Roger Knappett, the Slytherin Seeker, after he had said something about Remus needing to sprout wings; he already had the brains and eyes of an owl.  If Lily hadn't been Head Girl, he would have landed in the hospital wing; as it was, fifty points were taken from Slytherin, and the incidents weren't repeated.

The rest of April and May passed in a blur of studying, working, and flying parchment, and June rode in on winged horses with their hooves on fire; it was hot inside the castle and out; every window was constantly open, Peeves had been thanked ecstatically by a couple of fourth year boys after he upended a bucket of ice water over their heads in the Charms corridor.  Needless to say, it had unnerved the poltergeist badly; he wasn't used to people flinging their arms around him. 

Lily hadn't forgotten to check the Daily Prophet periodically.  A small resistance group was rumored to be founded by the Ministry; they were to fight Lord Voldemort, whose name and capabilities were now disclosed, as well as his hatred for all Muggles and Muggle-borns and their intended fate in his eyes.  Several Hufflepuff girls had stopped reading the newspaper; they were Muggle-born, and they were terrified of what might happen to them.

The second week in June was exam week; the morning of their first one, every single seventh year showed up in the Great Hall with their books tucked underneath their arms, and they hardly spoke, except to quiz each other on the fourteen uses for fairy dust in emotion potions.

Lora was sitting at the Gryffindor table again.  It had been considered useless to try to stop her, and, after all, it wasn't exactly against school rules…

She sighed loudly and smacked her head with her Astronomy book.  "Someone please tell me what a stinking triple solar eclipse is!  Anyone?  ANYONE!  Aargh!"

"Lora," Lily commented, amused, "calm down!  It's not the end of the world, you know."

"No, just exam day!  I'm going to fail.  I'm going to flunk. I—oh, what the heck.  Pass the butter."

Lily pushed it towards her friend.  "As long as you put it on your toast."

Lora sighed.  "Party pooper.  Sirius would have looked so nice with yellow streaks…"

Sirius snapped into reality.  "Lora, don't you _dare_!"

"I was joking, honestly!"

"For some strange reason I don't seem to like your jokes."

"Geez, well—"

"SHUT UP!"  The five seventh years around the two had yelled that in unison, causing Professor McGonagall to stand up from the staff table, frowning like she could never scowl again.

"Ten points from Gryffindor!  Mr. Potter, Miss Evans, you should know better!"

"Excuse us, Professor," the five mumbled, shooting daggers at Lora and Sirius.

Their Charms exam was easier than most; they had to charm tiny Professor Flitwick with an extremely strong Cheering charm; so strong that it could break through his shield.  Lily managed it easily, of course, but everyone was too caught up in murmuring facts about the 1658 Battle of Dorf to pay any attention to anyone or anything else.

History of Magic was one of the stuffiest classes she could ever hope to avoid; the dust motes were circling everywhere and forming circles and lines in the unmoving air as the students scribbled in the answers to fifteen pages of questions.  Professor Binns, for once, was paying attention to their behavior, so they couldn't conjure up a cold drink or anything of that sort.  He wouldn't open the windows, and it was getting almost unbearably hot and sticky inside the classroom.

Professor Dorvan had been unusually quiet, reserved, and almost mentally absent during their classes for the past month or so; they didn't know why, but at least it meant that they wouldn't be having a practical exam.  They didn't.  For three hours, they sat in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, writing down countercurses to dangerous hexes and things of that sort.

Divination was filled with imitation trances.  By now, they were supposed to know how to go into trances and tell of things that would happen in ten, twenty years.  Only one or two students had actually managed to hypnotize themselves into thinking that they were in a trance; the others were telling of their disembowelment by raving cat or something like that.

Herbology and Potions were practical exams; in Herbology they had to restrain giant Mandrakes with special charms to keep them from breaking the pots they were put in, while Potions called for the making of a Polyjuice Potion that would last for one hour, but this kind transformed one into an animal, which the regular potion wouldn't let one do.

They had a break of a morning before their elective course's exam; this meant James' and Lily's Anatomy of Magical Creatures class.  Professor Maar had set them to the task of finding out what poison lay in a baby dragon's brain—each student had an unconscious one, with the flame jets removed.  They had to find out the identity of the poison, extract it, or prescribe an antidote. Either way, even Lily was walking out of that class with a crestfallen face.

"I wasn't ready for that.  I wasn't.  I couldn't have been…I'll fail.  I'll fail miserably!" Lily whined.

James frowned.  "Lily, I wouldn't be talking if I were you.  At least you FOUND the poison."

"Well, that wasn't too hard," Lily started to lecture.  "See, the gland next to the muscles running up from the throat control the fire jets, and they were removed, giving clear access to the—"

"LILY!"  James was losing patience.  "I just got out of the stupid exam, okay?  Don't make me have to live through it again!"

"Okay, okay!" she grumbled, quite disgruntled.  "Your loss."

"No, my win," he shot back before disappearing around the corner of a corridor.

The Astronomy exam was held that night on the North Tower.  Their task was relatively simple; to calculate the times between Venus' eclipse of the moon on such and such a latitude and longitude of the planet; nothing Lily wasn't already used to.  Now, as she lay flopped in a couch, she kept thinking aobut the upcoming exams, the ones for normally prohibited spells.  They were admittedly quite hard, and barely a handful of students each year could become licensed to perform two of them.  

When Lily was shunted into the Headmaster's office, where Rowland Sikora sat, instead of Dumbledore, she and James were pointed to several desks sitting in the corner.  Severus was already sitting there; as was Lucius; Macnair and Avery were two others.

"Sit," Sikora ordered.  "You will be given your test papers immediately, and I will be supervising your work.  Cheating will result in expulsion of this school and the breaking of the offender's wand.  Do you all understand?"

"Yes, Minister," they murmered, then slid into their seats as several stacks of parchment still wet with ink appeared on each desk.

It wasn't easy; the five different ways to conjure a flying rabbit were still rather hazy in Lily's mind, no matter how hard she tried to fix them there, and she had never even _heard_ of the fourteenth color of some sort of creature's ear.  Or whatever it was.  She'd gotten a blinding headache a few minutes into the exams, and it had literally been getting hard to see the words on the parchment.  She had made it through, however, and immediately retreated to her dormitory; her head was splitting.

Then they were free—free!  No more exams; no more school for the seventh years and nothing at all till they took their Apparition tests, which they could do any time, now that they had taken the course.  And now there were also only two days left until the grand thousandth year ball—something Lily was looking forward to less and less.  

She'd have to show up in _dress_ _robes_.  Most likely she would have to fix her hair and do something to her face.  She'd have to _dance_.  To dance _formally_.  Well, maybe.  And, to top that all off, she'd be stuffed into a corset—well, that probably would be the least horrific of all.  She liked corsets; she'd wear them every day if they'd been part of the school uniform, which they weren't.  Still, Lily couldn't help feeling a little apprehensive about this.

The giggling girls all over Hogwarts didn't help, either.  Shrill laughter could be heard from every corner of the blasted castle every time a boy asked to talk to a girl, even though it might just be about dusting fruit flies.  They were excitedly comparing notes on what they were going to wear, how they'd do their hair, the makeup they'd wear…

Lily felt oddly like someone that didn't really exist; she didn't feel caught up in this maelstrom of dress robes and silk roses and romance and the rest of it; she'd be much better off not going to the dance.  No one had asked her to go with him, and she didn't expect anyone to.  True, Severus had asked her to dance with him at least once, and she'd accepted, but that wasn't exactly the same thing.

The day of the ball the Great Hall had looked simply marvelous; it was already charmed so as to permanently display a beautiful, deep black sky with twinkling stars.  The plates were made of silver now, instead of gold, and there were several dozen crystal vases stacked in a corner.  White linen tablecloths with silver threads in the weaving were folded neatly to make a large pile in another corner, ready for decoration as soon as lunch was over—the dance was to start at seven.

As soon as it had finished, most of the girls retired to their dormitories to get ready; Lily had hers to herself.  Serena was in the prefect's bathroom, along with Elspeth, Diana, and Abigail.  Abigail was only there because she was a seventh year prefect, not because she was Serena's especial friend, but Abigail hadn't caught on quite yet.

Still, around six-thirty, Lily was sitting on the windowsill, the glass wide open, and staring out over the roofs and grounds of Hogwarts, over the rippling, shimmery lake and across the deep green Forbidden Forest.  Sighing longingly, she was caught up in the slight, warm breeze, which blew through her hair and waved it around her face softly, wishing suddenly that she could fly along with it.  

She didn't hear anyone enter, but they must have, for someone set a hand on her shoulder.

"Lily?"

She picked at a bit of thread on her Hogwarts uniform.  "Hullo, Sirius."

He was already dressed in his robes; they were a satin-grey, and he did look quite nice in them.  She smiled at him as he sat down across from her.

"Not getting dressed?  James said you had some pretty robes; aren't you wearing them?"

Lily sighed.  "I don't think I'm coming."

Sirius looked shocked.  "Not coming?  Lily—this is one big event!  You can't miss it—some of the Ministry'll be there—you can't _not_ go!"

"I can't."  Her firm voice was steady.  "I'd rather not; that's just all.  I'll pay James back for my dress robes, since I won't be wearing them."

"He paid for them?"  
"Yes," she said calmly, "in Diagon Alley, over the summer.  I couldn't afford them—and it's better that I won't be wearing them—I hate borrowing things, even though he gave me a good excuse to give them to me."

"Why don't you want to go," Sirius questioned.  He had dropped the outraged tone; he simply was asking her.

She sighed again and rested her chin on her knees.  "I'd just not fit in with all of those people…I _don't_ fit in with them.  I don't want to live like they do…"

Sirius put an arm around her shoulders.  "Come on, that won't keep you from going to one lousy ball, will it?  Lily, I promise, you'll have fun.  You've got to do a dance with James anyway; since you're Head Girl.  No backing out."

His eyes looked so reassuring that she couldn't help but assent.

"All right.  But don't raise your expectations too high; I'm not going to show up as a damsel sent from the gods."

He laughed.  "If you wanted to, you could.  See you in twenty minutes, then," he grinned, shutting the door behind him.

Slowly, Lily stood up.  She had no fixed idea, really, against going to this ball…Dropping to her knees, she started rooting underneath her bed for the slippers that went with the robes.  Her hand hit a piece of paper; puzzled, she pulled a crumpled sheet of drawing paper and graphite out and spread it open on her knees.

It was that picture of James she had almost unwittingly done about a year or so ago; no, less than a year.  She remembered…she'd thrown it underneath the curtains of her bed…

The floodgates of her mind had been opened.  It wasn't some silly fear of not looking right or not fitting in that she was afraid of; strangely enough, it was the boy in the picture…

Then she snapped back to herself.  Lily Evans—nervous about some Quidditch player?  She tossed her head stubbornly.  "I'm going to that thing," she told herself, "because, one, I don't have a good reason not to; two, James bought me the robes; three, I told Sirius I'd be there.  No backing out now."

However, Lily couldn't fasten the corset in back; she had to walk around to the boys' dormitory, as they were just about the only ones that weren't constantly throwing fits because their hair wouldn't stay in place.  Well, James might be complaining, but he wouldn't be throwing a fit.

She entered their dormitory breathless; even though it wasn't fastened in back, the corset left her short of air.  Only Sirius and Peter were inside, and they both looked up quickly at her entrance.

"Lily, you're only half-dressed," Peter commented; he was in robes of dark blue, which, naturally, didn't require aid in putting it on.  

"Oh, hush," she said good-humouredly.  "Sirius, can you figure out how to fasten this thing in the back for me?  I can't get it."  
"Sure," Sirius mumbled; "lemme see it…Turn round."

She did so, obediently, and within moments, she was ordered to hold onto something.

"Oh, no," she groaned.  "This is one of those Scarlett O'Hara corsets, isn't it?  Suck in and pull?  I could have sworn I saw snaps or something somewhere."

"If you say so," Peter grunted, who had been handed the corset strings.  "Hold onto something and suck in."  
Lily made a face at him.  "You're trying to kill me, aren't you?"

"If you say so," Peter repeated.  "_Suck_ _in_."

"Okay, okay…"  She obediently took tight hold of the closest four-poster, and within seconds, she was laced so tightly she could hardly gasp.

"Peter, you _prat_!  Not that tight!  Sirius—_help__!_"

Between Sirius and Lily, they finally managed to make it fit decently, so that it didn't make her faint in the middle of the dance floor, and so that it still made her look slender.  She naturally was, but corsets were funny things when they weren't handled right.

Lily just missed James as she flitted back to her own dormitory to pull on a pair of slippers; he was taking Serena to the ball, and he was a nervous wreck, considering that his hair wouldn't behave no matter what and the black robes he was wearing were billowing at every step he took, Sirius informed her as she left the boys' room.  He had told her that, no matter what, he'd be taking her down to the Great Hall, no matter what 'that Slytherin git made you promise'.

There wasn't to be any backing out; there wasn't a chance of it.  Her hair was brushed and it hung around her shoulders to her waist, the robes were secured, and a small paste diamond pendant hung around her neck; it was cut in the shape of a teardrop. 

Tossing her head royally, she left the dormitory, meeting Sirius at the foot of the stairs, who grinned appreciatively when he saw her.

"You'll be fighting Snape off with a stick.  And everyone else, as well, including me."  He gave her a small kiss on the hand, with an overdone, conquistador bow, and she lightly smacked him on the side of the head.  

"None of that.  Absolutely none.  I am not a crazed romance-driven priss, Sirius; you know that."

"I know, I know," he grinned.  "I couldn't resist.  Say, can I have the first dance?  Snape'll want to kill me."

"Is that what you _want_?" she asked, eyebrows raised.  "No, wait.  Let me rephrase that.  Why?"

"Why not?" he asked, flashing a charming smile at her while taking her arm.

She sighed in frustration.  "I give up."  Assuming a regal stature, she slid her fingers around the crook of his elbow.  "Take me to the ballroom, good Sir Black."

"Fair Lady Evans, thou knowst that that would be but of nothing but great joy to me.  The—"

"Sirius," she warned.  "Take me downstairs before I lose it."

"Sure," he agreed, surprisingly.  "Lessgo."  
It was new to him, this feeling of escorting a queen to her throne.  Lily had the regal attitude and stature of a royal, and, unconsciously, she seemed to rule over everyone surrounding her.  Sirius didn't even try to pick a fight with Snape when he met them in front of the Great Hall.  Black robes, naturally.  But all that was needed to stop the fight was the touch of her hand on his arm…he couldn't have fought with anyone at that point.  Not even—what's his name?—Oh, yes, that Muggle-killer, Voldemort.  Not even him. 

Lily had seen Severus half-smile at her near the entrance doors.  She was unconscious of his approving glance as he looked at her and the robes she was wearing, but Sirius hadn't missed it.

She stood on tip-toe for a minute and gave Sirius a quick kiss on the cheek.  "Thanks for walking me down here.  I've got to go with McGonagall—she's supposed to announce the Head Boy and Girl formally, as if it's a big deal or something…and then I've got to open the dancing..."

Severus shrugged.  "Well, it is a big deal, isn't it?"  
"I suppose."  Lily gave them both a quick hug.  "I'll see you two later, then," she beamed and was off.  She didn't run; she glided through crowds, and they unconsciously parted for her…

"She looks really nice tonight," Severus muttered.

"Yeah," Sirius shrugged; "what's it to you?"

"Nothing!"  Severus glared.  "Absolutely nothing!"

"Yeah, right," Sirius mumbled.  Then, lower so that no one heard him, "We're just both in love with the same person, that's all…"


	64. Dreams are heavenly,,,let's hope this on...

Lily hardly noticed the gleaming masses of students all around her; the girls in many different shades, the boys mostly in darker colors.  She saw Eva, too, who looked shy and pretty in sky-blue robes.  Lora was in silver-grey silk, the same color as Sirius', but hers went with her stormy grey eyes.

Lily spotted James across the room; he was goofing around with Peter, Frank, and Serena, who, in burgundy robes with a white skirt showing in the front, managed to look completely beautiful.  As always, Lily thought, a tiny bit annoyed.

Remus looked very nice; he was in robes of dark brown velvet.  _Werewolf colors look nice on him, Lily thought.  She stopped next to him for a few seconds to talk, when a hand landed on her shoulder, turning her around._

"Professor?" Lily asked.  Professor McGonagall was shooeing James towards her, who was a tiny bit red.  As the teachers herded the rest of the students inside the Great Hall and opened up the large windows inside the Great Hall so as to form doors onto the lawns, the two were left alone for the moment.

Lily smiled shyly at him.  "Hello."  
James grinned at her.  "You look absolutely beautiful.  Much better than that day I saw you in Diagon Alley."

She bit her lip.  "Please don't.  I hate it when people tell me that—I never can think of a response."

"How about, 'Thanks; you look nice, too?'"

Lily laughed.  "That actually makes too much sense!"

Professor McGonagall interrupted the rest of what might have been a decent conversation by reemerging and telling them that they needed to enter the Great Hall.  Naturally, they did so, and, as Lily felt the entire school's eyes upon her and James, as they walked over to the center of the hall, leaned over towards the Head Boy.

"James?"

"Yeah?" he whispered back.

"How does one dance formally?"

He grinned.  "Don't worry.  Follow my lead; I'll try to teach without having everyone else notice."  
The four House tables were gone; around the walls stood about a hundred miniature tables covered with the silky silver tablecloths and set with silverware and beautiful roses in one crystal vase per table.  The entire Hall was covered in banners saying _Hogwarts Celebrates 1 000 years or something of the sort, and where the teacher's table usually was, a stage had been conjured, with about ten people with instruments sitting in chairs covered with white cloth on top of the stage._

"James?" she asked again.

"What?"

"Who're those people onstage?  The ones with the instruments."

James looked and let out a whistle.  "Holy Merlin!  So he did manage to get them to come!"

"Who?"

"It's a Celtic band—they're rather famous, and they're very good.  Not exactly classical, but sort of.  Here—"

They had reached the middle of the floor by now, and James took Lily's hand in one of his own, letting his other rest on the curve of her back.

"Now what?" she hissed.

"Just do what I do and try not to step on my toes," he whispered back as the musicians started to play a rather fast, yet slow tune, one that was surprisingly easy to dance to.  Not that Lily ever really had a problem with it—she had enjoyed herself far too much at a party in the Gryffindor common room in fourth year, but that wasn't exactly dancing; it was more of a wild, spinning, twirling, breathtaking whip.  This, on the other hand, was slow…slower than she'd ever moved before.  

Behind James' back, she caught Peter snickering behind his hand, and Remus shaking his head exaggeratedly.  Still, after about a minute and a half of them circling the floor alone, with the white robes sweeping the floor like a veil at every step Lily took, John Winters, from the Gryffindor Quidditch team, stepped up to Eva, holding out his hand.  Quickly, they were on the floor, then a couple of fifth years, then a third year and a fourth year, then Frank and Lora, who was trying to see how many people's feet she could step on in the space of that song.

It ended a bit too soon for Lily; she had enjoyed sweeping around in the crowd, twirling as if on wings, then recovering to earth to have a hand wrapped around her waist again. Was she only pretending to see it, or was he also sorry to let her go?  She didn't know.  

Sirius claimed her for the next dance, and then Severus asked her for one. Sirius attacked her immediately afterwards, asking her if she truly was scarred for life—come on, Severus' hand had actually _touched her.  Lily was in a good enough mood to simply tell him to shut up, which was a first._

After that, though, the orchestra struck up an extremely fast song, and she wasn't in the mood for anything fast at all.  Rather than stay in the Great Hall, she fluttered between groups of friends and couples, making her way outside through one of the large windows that now were magnificent doors.

It was even more beautiful outside.  Every single tree and bush had small, sparkling fairies in it; instead of a large, overgrown clump of trees, a fountain had been erected, marble, white, and elegant, with a marble sprite spurting almost iridescent water from her hands stretched above her head.

The sun was setting, bathing the grounds in a golden and scarlet glow; then diminishing to a deep indigo.  Soon the only figures that could be seen were that of the water sprite, the white marble fountain, and Lily herself, who was sitting on the edge of the basin, running her fingers lightly through the water.

A crackling noise to her left startled her; she jumped up, facing whoever it was.

Lily caught her breath—this was the last person she had ever expected to see at Hogwarts.  The _last person.  Even a Muggle construction worker would have been more realistic._

"_Tom?"  She moved forward uncertainly, as though she wasn't sure it was him._

It was, though the months had taken their toll upon him.  The red glare that had inflamed his eyes when Litharelen died was still there; Lily could tell they would always be like that.  He was whiter, paler, more determined, taller, and somehow—he seemed almost invincible.

"No one's out here, are they?"  His entire voice was now high and cold, not only his laugh…

Lily's eyes darted around.  "No," she said, satisfied.  "They're dancing or who knows what—TOM!"  A thought had just dawned on her.  "You haven't come to _attack Hogwarts, have you?"_

"Good God, Lily, no," Tom said, vaguely amused, his fingers playing with his wand.  "I'm not that stupid…it's well protected.  No—I want to speak with you."  
"Me."  Lily set her jaw.  "Shoot."  
"Litharelen's dead.  I know she is; she won't ever come back.  She served me as a right-hand man, faithfully and well…"

Lily cast an anxious glance over her shoulder.  "Tom, can't we go somewhere, like maybe the Forbidden Forest, where it's safe?"

"Safe?"  He laughed.  "Lily, that place is far from safe for you…"

She shrugged, and her regal bearing resumed her body.  "Any place is safe for me.  What did you want to ask me?"  
"I want to know whether you were serious when you meant you were leaving my ranks—not that you ever were in them.  You want to break off all contact with me?"

This is suicide, Lily told herself.  "Of course.  You almost killed James."

"I will get around to that one day.  He's the one responsible for everything," Tom sneered.  "Still—"

"Tom," Lily interrupted quietly, "I wish you'd get it through your head that James wouldn't ever do anything like that.  He couldn't; he didn't.  Stop blaming him."  
"Lily, stop sticking up for him—what I have to offer you is more than this—"  He gestured around the now almost paradisiacal Hogwarts—"this _place."_

"Oh?"  Her voice, ever cool and collected, had intensity in it now.

"I want you to take Litharelen's place; to join me, to stand by me at my right hand.  You've got great gifts and powers, Lily," Tom whispered; "I'd hate to see them wasted."

Lily was caught off her guard for a second.  The dizzying depths of what she could become was yawning before her…what she could become, what adventure and danger she could face.  Giddy, she leaned on the fountain, an eerie light drowning her eyes in its brilliance.  Finally—a chance to feel her heart beat every single second of every day…a chance to _live!  To live life and enjoy it—_

"If you don't learn to live with danger, you don't learn to live at all," she murmered softly to herself.

Tom didn't interrupt, and wisely so.  If he said anything now, at a crucial point in time, he could lose what he had been trying to gain for the past year or so—he needed her.  She would be a crucial ally; after all, he knew about her scores on the O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s.  Only he had scored as high as she, and he knew not one other person that had scored higher or as high.  She was smart, she was logical, she had no real ties to any of her friends or family, besides her mother, who was dead, and, most of all, she was too firmly enough against love as to be pulled to the Ministry's side.  She was a wonderful ally—if she could but decide to become one.

Still spinning around in Lily's mind were the things she had dreamed of while cooped up in a stuffy classroom at Hogwarts or in her dormitory—running, running from justice, fleeing…feeling the world want to snatch her up, swallow her, but never enabling itself to…

Living as though she'd never lived before.  Actually using her full capabilities.  Danger…danger…danger…

A longing smile had slowly started to wink at the corners of her mouth, and Tom let his shoulders relax in relief.  Good—she had succumbed.

Lily slowly opened her mouth, twisting a piece of hair absent-mindedly between two fingers.  Her eyes were still sparkling in anticipation, when, almost as if in a slide presentation, a picture was slipped in front of her eyes—one picture?—no, many, millions, flashing, dissolving, more forming, ones she hardly ever remembered…

Diagon Alley—her first time there, when James knocked into her and sent her flying.

When he introduced her to his friends on the train; when he sailed to the castle along with the first years; when he tried on the hat for the second time.

The first time she had ever seen a Quidditch practice; his face when he was been accused of being her boyfriend.

His face after he found out that he'd locked her into the dungeon she'd almost died in.

Scenes started flashing so quickly she couldn't keep up with them—then—

The first time they had landed in the Alendoren Cove.  The time Tom had attacked James—then the day Litharelen died and they thought they were lost.  His eyes were blazing with wildness, not fear…they weren't afraid…

His face when they had danced together, alone, for those few minutes…not hard as diamonds, but soft and warm…sweet—Lily imagined for a minute the touch of his hand on her waist, and she flinched slightly.  Images of the dance flashed behind her half-closed eyelids; the water spilling into the fountain was reflecting her uninterpretable expression.  She let go of the piece of hair she had twisted into a sheath of curls, and she drew a breath to speak.

"Tom—"

She stopped, and Tom didn't say anything.  He was secure, he knew what her answer was going to be.

"Tom, I can't."

His eyebrows were hidden under his hair as he replied, "You _can't?  Pray tell why not?"_

"I just can't, that's all," she said with unbreakable finality.

"You can't or you won't?"

"Both, really."  She turned her back on him.  "You'd better leave.  Dumbledore might catch you."

Tom laughed, throwing his head back and almost cracking windowpanes with the sound.  "He—that fool!  He couldn't come close to me!"  Quickly, however, he resumed his serious manner.  "So you've made up your mind?  That's your final answer."  
"It's my final answer," she said, though only she could tell how much it cost her to keep her voice level and her bearing erect.

Tom kept the same aura of self-control.  "Good, then.  I'll leave you.  I shan't kill you—I'd have done so with anyone else, but I owe you a debt, for what you did for Litharelen.  I don't intend ever to kill you, by the way, for the same reason--unless you start fighting for the Ministry and get in my way."

Lily laughed, a merciless, humourless sound.  "How compassionate!  The great Lord Voldemort spares a Hogwarts seventh year from his anger.  Headlines for the Daily Prophet, that is."

"It should be."  Tom's eyes grew almost to slits.  "You're perhaps the last I'll ever spare…ever, besides some of my followers.  The last.  You're a lucky person, Lily—but you've made a wonderfully stupid choice."

Before she could blink, he was gone.  Lily couldn't tell how, but she suspected he had broken through the Apparating charms in Hogwarts—after all, he _was one of the most powerful wizards the earth ever created._

She drew a deep breath, so deep that the woods started to dim in front of her eyes and she let it out with a sickening rush.  Lily knew full well she'd just done something that could have cost her her life, which suddenly seemed more appealing than ever before.

From inside the Great Hall, she heard Serena's laugh float outside.  Lily whipped around quickly, then almost melted as she slipped to the grass, sitting down with her back against the fountain.

"I'm a fool," she whispered.  "I gave everything up, everything!—And for what?  For what?"  She glared at the moon, as if it was its fault; then her head sank into her folded arms.

"For what?" she whispered.

Lily remained that way for only a few moments, then, gathering her strength, she stood back up, her hands slightly resting on the edge of the fountain, her eyes riveted to the sparkling, dancing, dark and yet light waterdroplets.

A hand fell onto hers; she turned her eyes slightly to see the shadowy figure on her right; she didn't move her head.

"How much did you hear?" she asked.  It wasn't any use to ask him if he had heard or not; she knew he had.

James shrugged, running his fingers through his hair with his other hand.  "Everything.  I followed you outside."

A cloud moved over the moon, making his face unreadable, but hers stood out in the darkness like a candle flame; the white skirt was trailing behind her like a stream of water.

"Well?"  
"I'm not going to tell Dumbledore."  He lifted her hand off of the marble and pulled it towards him.  

It was strange, Lily thought, how they could almost read what the other person was thinking…

She stared back onto the fountain's rippling surface.  "Everyone else's inside, aren't they?"

James nodded.  "They're eating now; it's eight o'clock, so…"  His voice trailed off.

"Yes," she murmered, "I know."

They were quiet for some time, and the only sound that reached their ears was the warm breath of the wind as it ruffled the leaves on the trees and strands of their hair.

Finally, James spoke again.  "Lily?"

She gazed at him again.  "Yes?"

"Why'd you tell him you wouldn't?  I know—"  He faltered, then regained the sentence he had dropped.  "I thought that was what you most wanted, wasn't it?"

"It is," she sighed.  "Yes—well, not what I most want, but it's definitely the life I'd love most to live."

"Then why'd you tell him you wouldn't?"  His eyes seemed to pierce her thoughts, and she involuntarily drew away, his face clearly outlined in front of her.

"I—"  She choked.  "No reason you'd be interested in."

He sighed.  "All right."

She smiled, partly at him, partly at nothing in particular, shivering slightly.

James half-frowned.  "Are you cold?"

"No—" she started to say—"I'm—"

Lily was cut off, though; he had draped his arm around her shoulder; his hand was on her waist.  She wasn't used to this at all; startled, she tensed, then relaxed, partly supporting herself on the white marble.

It was almost as if he were forcing her to look at him, not letting her eyes back down under his gaze, but his eyes weren't interrogating, not cruel, simply an orbit for her.  She couldn't turn away, couldn't do anything—didn't _want to do anything—_

She saw nothing else except his eyes; their surroundings were blindly leaving her, and the tinkle of forks on plates in the Great Hall couldn't reach her ears.  The only sound she heard was the one that a conch shell, held to her ear, made, the sound of the ocean, of far-off waves crashing onto the rocks…

He didn't care what she tried this time; if she turned away, anything.  This was going to be a night of heartbreak, anyway; he knew she hated romance and any idea that could possibly relate to marriage in the faintest way whatsoever.  He mightn't see her again, _ever—they were leaving Hogwarts tomorrow.  He'd been accepted into the Ministry, and he knew she was going to be working at Hogwarts. There was no way that he'd be taking time off of work—not __now, anyway.  Not with Lord Voldemort gaining more power every minute they were alive.  And who knew—he'd probably be the first to die, two seconds into his first assignment as an Auror, just because of Tom's particular hatred of him.  Before he died…_

Half scared she'd repulse him again, he slowly leaned towards her.  She didn't move; she hardly breathed, and her eyes were dark green, darker than they had ever been.  The same feeling of reckless abandon of sanity and logic came over him as it had about a month or two, next to the lake…He saw her eyes drop; the dark, thick eyelashes lay quietly on her cheekbones, and he moved closer, ever so slightly—

Their lips touched, and instead of the fireworks Lily had always heard people claiming to have seen, a feeling almost like a moonrise rose into her mind and enveloped her with its beams; when she leaned her head onto his shoulder and felt his arms encircle her waist, she knew exactly why she'd refused Tom's offer, and never in her life had she been this exultant, blissful, calm, and contented…this was worth anything, anything that was in her power to give.


	65. Engagement

After what seemed like ages later, beautiful, heavenly centuries later, he stepped inches back and cupped her chin in his hand.

"Lil?"

"Yes?"  Her eyes were fireworks in itself, he thought.

"Why'd you really tell Tom no?"

Lily had never been afraid of anything—well, hardly ever, and she wasn't now.  

"You," she said unwaveringly, without glancing away, almost testing his gaze for a response.

He didn't know he'd been holding his breath till he let it out; it was the answer he'd been desperately hoping she'd give the first time he asked her.  And he was wishing as hard as he could that she was serious, and if she wasn't, then—Oh, bloody hell, he thought, and slipped his hand into his pocket.

"Lil…I want you to tell me something…"

"You know, you're the only one that calls me that," she smiled shyly.

He tightened his hold around her waist, bringing something out of his pocket with his other hand.  He took her hand in his, and she felt him slip something cold onto her left hand.

Lily brought her hand up to her eyes—it was a ring, a white-gold with a black pearl set in the center.  Eyes flaming with something she couldn't describe, she looked back up at James, who was grinning lopsidedly.

"I remember your saying back in fourth year that you wanted one like this…"

"James, that was three years ago!—You remembered that?"  Her voice was almost awed.

"Yeah…well, do you want to keep it?"  He almost couldn't face her; [i]what if she says no?[/i] was echoing in his mind, revolving round and round and making him sick with worry…

She smiled; must have known what he was thinking.  "Of course I will; you didn't think I said no to Tom because I'm such a kind person at heart, did you?"

He didn't answer; not in words, anyway.  Bending down, he kissed her again.

Students had started to spill onto the lawns, but they didn't hear the small-talk and the rustling of dress robes.  The others were mostly concerned with themselves; only Remus had come out for a real purpose.  He hadn't any idea where James had gone; one minute he was there, the other he wasn't—and then, out of the corner of his eyes, he saw two silhouettes standing out against the fountain, the water of which was literally filled with light.  Remus grinned and retreated to the Great Hall.

Back in the garden, James pulled apart again.  "So, name the day."  
Lily bit her lip, smiling.  "It's the twenty-fourth now, isn't it?"

"It is," he confirmed.  "Go on."  
"June thirtieth," she said determinedly.  
"Why then?" he asked, grinning.  "Anything special happen that day?"  
"No…"  Her voice trailed off.  "It's Midsummer Night's Eve, that's all."  She looked quickly up at him.  "You don't mind, do you?"

"Of course I don't!"  He took both her hands in his own and touched her ring.  "Your wish is my command, that's all."

Lily leaned her head on his shoulder, staring into the dusky sky.  "I've got a feeling I'm going to be tremendously happy for at least the next month," she smiled.

"I do, too," James confirmed.  "After what I've put you through, I'm making it my business to make sure you stay happy."

After a short pause, something else struck his mind, and he immediately blurted it out.  "What about your father—and that Richard kid?"  
Lily laughed.  "I don't care.  I couldn't care about anything else right now…I don't ever intend to return to my father's house.  And Richard…he's no one special.  I don't, to be honest, like him terribly; I think I just turned to him because he was the only one I could talk to in the Muggle world."  She shot a glance at him.  "You don't have to worry about my eloping with him."

James flushed.  "I didn't think you would.  I just wanted to know, that's all."

She laughed gaily again.  "You did suspect.  No; you don't have to worry."

He hugged her.  "You!  You're too smart for my own good.  So, how're we going to break this to the rest of Hogwarts?"

They were both sitting on the edge of the fountain; her head was on his shoulder, one of his hands was on her ring, and the other was resting on her waist.  They didn't say much; they had no real need to.  It was a beautiful evening; the sky was drawn over with dusky blue clouds, and through rifts in the clouds, bits of dark blue sky painted with stars shone through, and the fairies sitting on tree branches twinkled merrily.

They both were startled when Remus, this time accompanied by Peter, walked back from inside the Great Hall. 

"Is it safe now?"

They couldn't help it; they burst out laughing, and Remus simply looked at them with the most obviously false disapproving look he could summon up.  He was delighted for them; after all, James had been going nuts about her for ages, and now, for the first time in months, he was really happy.

Remus eyed Lily's ring.  "Very nice."

She blushed—it was the only time he could remember her doing that.  "Thanks."

"So," Remus grinned, "when's the wedding?"

James punched him lightly in the arm.  "June thirtieth."

"June thirtieth."  Peter repeated, nodding, as if he completely understood the reason for that date, and then he turned to James.  "June thirtieth?"

"Sure.  Midsummer Night's Eve."  
"Very nice pick!  But," Remus added slyly, "I'll bet you asked her why on earth she picked that date first time she told you."  
"Hey!  How'd you know—er—how'd you know I asked her that?"

Remus started to laugh.  "Lily, I'll pray for you!"

Back in the Great Hall, Sirius was moodily gulping down another bottle of butterbeer.  Remus said he'd go look for James, and right after Remus had left, Sirius noted Lily was missing.  Remus had returned, with an odd grin on his face, saying he found James, and about ten minutes afterwards, he'd gone back outside with Peter, and he wasn't back yet.  

Sirius slammed the empty bottle down on the table, causing several first years to glare his way; he pushed his chair back and headed outside, looking for his friends.

He found them talking next to the fountain, and Lily was there, too.  His eyes lit up as he moved towards them, then he froze.

James was hugging her, and she was letting him.  She had a ring on her left hand he could have sworn she didn't have on earlier that evening…Sirius closed his eyes.

"Oh, God…" he whispered.  "I'm dreaming…this is a nightmare!"

He opened his eyes, and they were still standing there, though Remus had spotted him.  He waved to Sirius.

"C'mon over here, Padfoot, congratulate the happy couple!"

_The happy couple_.

As casually as he could manage it, Sirius jogged over to them.  "Hey—is there something her you guys haven't told me?"  
James lifted Lily's hand and almost thrust it into Sirius' face.  "Look!  She said yes!"

Sirius managed a grin.  Only looking at Lily, he replied.

"I hope you'll be very happy."

She smiled at him.  Never before had he seen her so delighted, so…so truly ecstatic…Her very eyes were a dark green with bliss.  He wasn't about to take this away from her.

"So," he laughed, hugging both Lily and James at the same time, "have you forgotten all about Snape?  He'll be devastated!"

James let out a hoot, and Lily looked oddly thoughtful.  "Do you really think he will?"

Remus stared at her in astonishment.  "Lily, he's been batty-eyed about you for years!  Don't tell me you haven't noticed!"

Lily blushed.  "I told him no…after he'd asked me to be his girlfriend, and I figured we'd both forgotten about it."

James kissed the top of her head.  "You're a very wanted lady, you know that?"

Peter grinned.  "And James is an extremely envied guy!"

"No kidding," Sirius sighed.

James looked quickly up at his friend's face.  "Hey, Padfoot, you okay?"

"Sure!"  Sirius stared at him, eyes open.  "I'm going to get to be best man at a wedding!  Why wouldn't I be okay?"

"Best man?"  Lily was skeptical.  "You've already arranged this?"  
"Men have their own special language, dear," Remus informed her.  "You don't want to know."

"Sure, I'll be your best man!"  Sirius nudged her.  "Don't worry, I won't ruin your happy day."

"I'm sure you won't!"

"I won't!" he protested.  "Well, you don't mind rabbit blood substituted for flour in the wedding cake, do you?"

"Sirius," James said warningly.

"Or having your skirt ripped off as someone steps on it?"

"Sirius," James repeated.

"Or having your ring coated with honey?"

"SIRIUS!"  This came from all four at once, and the entire student population stared in their direction.

That night, at around one in the morning, Lily and James were sitting together on a sofa, still receiving grinning congratulations from all the Gryffindors, and Eva was kneeling near Lily's feet, raving with an unrepressable smile on her face.

"I don't believe it.  I don't believe it!  You're getting _married_!  _Married_!  You, the one that never got kissed till tonight, never ever wanted to marry, settle down, anything—you got proposed to before _me_!  Before Vanessa, before Lora, before Serena, for Pete's sake!"

Lily half-laughed.  "Eva, Sirius is our best man; you know that, right?"

"How couldn't I know it?" Eva grinned.  "He's been raving about it ever since you four yelled at him outside!"

"Well, in that case, I'm inviting you to be my maid of honor."

A large smile spread around Eva's face and crossed itself in the back, finally stopping at her ears.  "Really?  Lily!  Lily!  Thank you _so much!!!_"  She jumped up and grabbed her friend around the neck, hugging her.  "I'm going to be in a wedding!"

Suddenly, Lily noticed that James' arm around her had stiffened.  "What?" she asked him nervously.

He nodded to a figure that had just climbed in the portrait hole.  "Speak of the devil."

Lily turned her gaze to where he was looking, and her eyebrows rose.  "Devil is right!"

Serena stepped forward, her eyes ice blue.  "So.  You're getting married?"  Her question was directed at James, who rose to his feet. The entire common room fell silent.

"Yes."

"To the Evans kid?"

"Yes."

"The one that attacked me in third year and that you passionately hated?  That one?"

"That one," he confirmed.

Lily was still holding his hand; she squeezed it encouragingly, and she felt him relax.

"You know what you're doing?  She'll have you murdered soon.  She's some sort of devil girl, with her Muggle ancestry and temper and sword—Are you under the Imperius Curse?"  She tossed her head.

"I am not, and no, she won't."

"How do you know?  She attacked me in third year, remember?"

James twirled Lily's ring with his hand, and she stood up, placing her other hand on his shoulder.

"Cissa, I'm marrying Lily.  That's all there is to it."

Serena simply stood there, almost open-mouthed, but she had too much pride for that.  "What?  You mean—that's it?  No apology, no nothing?"  
"Apology for what?" 

"You—you—"  She was almost spitting with rage.  "You idiot!  You led me on all this while, making me think—"

"I never made you think anything.  I've never heard of a rule that makes a person marry their first girlfriend, and I don't intend to hold by the one you just formed.  I didn't agree to it."  
"You don't agree to that?  You held me in Hogsmeade underneath the table!"

Lily knew that Serena hadn't meant it the way it came out, but she nevertheless fell back onto the couch, laughing almost hysterically.  It was infectious, and most of the Gryffindors joined in, even James, who was fighting a smile lurking at the corners of his mouth.  In the middle of the laughter, Serena was trying to yell, "I meant he _held my hand!_  Not held me!  Held my hand!"

When everything else failed, she stepped forward, lifted her hand, and hit James across the face.  A greater tumult broke out as Lily immediately dashed to her feet; it took all four of the Marauders and Eva to hold her back.

"Hey!  Don't you _dare_!  Let me _go_, you _prats_!  Get back here, you--you mindless wife of a slug—let me go!  James, for the love of _Peeves_, let me go!"

They managed to pull her back onto the couch, and Sirius was still repeating what she'd called Serena.  

"Mindless wife of a slug.  Lily, where on _earth_ did you come up with that one?"

She gave up seconds later, though, since the portrait was closed.  Exhausted, both with laughter and with trying to hold her back, the boys collapsed into their previous seats.

Lily had turned James' face towards the light.  "If she gave you a bruise that'll show up on our wedding day, you're inviting her to our wedding and I'm showing up with a dagger."  She ran her hand over his cheek.  "Nasty red mark.  I'd like to rip her hair out."

 Sirius snorted.  "Lily, it's about time you let fly!  You know, you've been wanting to say that since at least third year.  Congratulations!"

"Thank you," she accepted coolly.  "Engagement does odd things to people."

"It does," Sirius agreed.  "Mindless wife of a slug," he repeated, with a blissful grin on his face.

"Oh, shut up," Lily said, good humour restored, as she smacked him on the back of the head.

The next morning, Lily had finished packing, and she had just come out of Professor McGonagall's office; she had told her teacher that she wasn't going to be teaching next year.  Lily was smiling to herself; Professor McGonagall had congratulated her on her ring, and she hardly heard the footsteps behind her.

"Lily!  Lily!"

"Hm?  Oh, Severus, hi!"

He stopped next to her.  "Hello."  His eyes were almost magnetically drawn to her ring.  "I guess I wanted to see that for myself."

She turned a bit red.  "Severus—"

"Don't bother," he sighed.  "You've been extremely fair and aboveboard; you told me what you felt.  Still…"

She didn't say anything.

He sighed.  "Never mind.  Congratulations."

Lily smiled at him and took his hand.  "Severus, come to my wedding."

His head snapped towards her.  "You mean that?"

"Just because I'm the bride of a Gryffindor," she replied, "doesn't mean I can't invite one of my best friends to the wedding."

A real smile lit up his face.  "Lily, you're really something."

"No, _you_ are," she contradicted.  "Not may people would accept an invitation to their—well, I didn't think you'd accept," she finished a bit clumsily.

"Hey," he mumbled, "I'll get to see you there.  It works out."

She smiled at him.  "Thanks, Severus…"

He hugged her.  "I hope you'll be very happy."

Those words rang a bell…someone else had said that last night, almost bitterly…but for the moment she couldn't remember who.

"Oh, don't worry," she laughed; "you'll get—Severus?"  His face was hard as stone, unreadable to most, but she could sense something.  "What's wrong?"  
"Nothing," he replied resentfully.  

"Liar," she retorted.  "Tell me."

He looked up and down the hallway, then pulled her into an empty classroom, shutting the door.  Taking a deep breath, he rolled up his left sleeve.

"There.  Look and be amused."

Lily stifled a gasp.  There was the Dark Mark—the one she remembered converting to paper—branded into his forearm.  Black but red in some parts, she could feel him wince as she touched it.

"Severus, why?"

He let his sleeve fall again.  "I didn't know you'd abandoned Lord Voldemort, that's why."

Tears formed in her eyes.  "Severus—you didn't—you—"

"Oh, I know full well what an idiot I am.  Spare me," he shot at her bitterly.

"Severus, if I'd known what you'd been thinking of—I had no idea—"

"No, you couldn't have."  He cut her off mercilessly.  "You couldn't have.  Well, I'm bonded to him now, aren't I?  To have and to hold forevermore?"

"Severus," she sighed.  "I've not got the best temper in the world, as you well know, and I've got my wand within easy reach.  _Please_ don't be a pillock."

He sighed.  "Right, right.  I'm sorry.  You're getting married in five days; you've got a right to be happy."  Severus took a deep breath, then expelled it quickly.  "I'll be at the wedding.  But they'll throw me out."

"No, they won't," she said firmly.  "It's my wedding, too, not just James', and I've got a right to invite whoever I please."

He grinned.  "Marriage definitely won't soften you.  You're still the most stubborn, tempestuous, and hardhearted person at Hogwarts.  I could almost pity Potter."

She laughed.  "He knows I'm not easy to live with!"

"He'd better," Severus mumbled.  "He's in for some difficult years."

He watched the door close behind her, and then dropped his head into his clenched fists.  "Severus, if there's an idiot greater than you out there in the world, he needs to show himself and be shot…"

When Lily walked back to the common room, James was there to meet her.  She smiled absently when he came over, though her brow was furrowed and her eyes were worried.

"Lil?  What—did something happen?  Are you all right?"

She frowned.   "I need to talk to you."  
"Sure."  He pulled her upstairs, into the currently empty dormitory he'd lived in for seven years.  Placing her next to him on the windowseat, he took her hand. 

"Go on."  
Lily sighed.  "James, it's Severus."  
"What about him?"  James suddenly looked worried.  "Were you just talking to him—did he say anything…"

She shrugged his arm off of her shoulders and leaned against the wall.  "Yes.  I just saw him when I was leaving Professor McGonagall's office."  She looked straight into his eyes.  "James, he's a Death Eater."

James let out a short laugh.  "Well, that shows how smart he is!"  He quickly stopped, however, at the look on her face.  "There's something else, isn't there?"

She didn't bother to nod.  "He joined because of me.  After the last Quidditch game, he told me he'd pretty much figured out that I was Tom's 'little mascot'.  I confirmed that, but didn't tell him I'd cast Tom off—I am a _fool_," she sighed, hitting her head sharply against the stone.

"Hey—don't hurt yourself," he worried, putting a hand behind her head.  "It's not your fault.  You couldn't have known what was in his head, and you can't do a thing about it.  It was a misunderstanding—and he could have told you."

She smiled weakly at him, standing up.  "Thanks."

"For what?"

Lily took his hands and placed them around her waist.  "Talking to me."

He rested his chin on her head.  "There's nothing I'd rather want to do."

She sighed.  "James, you owled your parents this morning?"

"Yep," he nodded.  "They're not picking us up, and we've got their full approval."  He smiled at her.  "Mum likes you a lot."

She flushed.  "I'm glad.  I'd hate for her not to—and I didn't really think she'd remember me."  
"Not remember you?  You've got to be joking!  She ranted at me for at least twelve hours about hospitality and things of that sort when I threw you out the summer of sixth year!  'Course she remembers you!"

"Oh."  Lily grinned.  "How badly did she hurt you?"

He groaned.  "I was grounded for a month, which meant I couldn't leave my room."

"Really?"  Her eyebrow went up.  "But you had guests; didn't you?"

"Yeah, but Mum knew they could amuse themselves without me."  He sighed.  "They did, too."

Lily smiled.  "Well, that's what you get for throwing me out!"  She lightly elbowed him in the side, but her face grew more serious.

"I haven't told Father or Petunia yet, but I hope they'll not be too disappointed.  They don't really want me to marry a wizard—don't take that as an offence!"  She place a finger on his lips.  "They want me to marry a Muggle, preferably one that will help my father's business get back on its feet.  So—well, you see."

He grinned at her. "I see.  And if he doesn't let you—"

"James!"  She folded her arms.  "You are NOT attacking my father with one of the Unforgivable Curses!"

"I didn't intend to!" he defended himself.  "I was planning to use those I made up!"

She let out a groan.  "My father is _doomed_."

A half hour later, they had boarded the Hogwarts Express for the last time.  The seventh years had received certificates officially stating that they were permitted to use magic outside of school, and they, especially the Marauders, were lording that over the younger students. 

The Marauders and Lily managed to get a compartment to themselves, and they immediately accosted the couple about wedding plans.  James poked Lily in the side.

"She's responsible for everything.  I want her to have a wedding the way she wants it."

"And he wants to get out of planning," Lily said slyly, causing them to start laughing.  "It's not going to be anything huge.  I'm only inviting a few people…and I won't have it in a church.  That's final."

Remus shook his head.  "Lily, James' mother's a Roman Catholic…"

"Yes," she nodded, "and I'm not."

Sighing, Remus grinned.  "James, this'll be one interesting wedding."

"Knock it off, Remus!" James yawned.  "Anyone up for Gobstones?"

Several hours later, the train pulled into King's Cross.  Nervous and a bit worried, James lugged both his and Lily's trunk onto the platform.  As she helped him load them onto a trolley, she caught sight of his face.

"You're worried?"

He shrugged.  "Sort of.  I don't really know your father."

"Doesn't matter.  He's scared of magic, so the only thing you'll have to do if he looks like he wants to tear your arms out is fumble for your wand."  She smiled mischievously, and James laughed. 

"I'll keep that in mind!"

He pushed the trolley through the barrier, just behind Lily.  When they emerged, Lily spotted her father at once.

"James, over there."

James looked over to where a tall man, a bit plump, with mousy-brown hair was standing, twiddling his thumbs.  Next to him, Petunia was standing; a girl with lots of neck and dirty blonde hair pulled back from her face.  Her arm was through another man's; Lily immediately recognized him as Vernon Dursley.  

James had only seen Petunia before, so he didn't know the man, but he was just the same as the day he'd run into the Evans' mailbox after running out of their house; burly, almost no neck, and the beginnings of a rather thick moustache.

Lily's father stepped forward.  "Hullo.  Have a nice year?"

She didn't answer.  "Dad, there's someone I want you to meet."  Ignoring Mr. Evans' disapproving glance, she pulled James forward.  "This is James Potter."

Mr. Evans nodded curtly.  "Hello."  He turned back to his daughter.  "Let your friend go back to his parents.  We're going home."

Lily didn't lose her composure.  "He isn't my friend."

"He's not?"  Mr. Evans was disconcerted.  "Well, what, then?"

"He's my fiancé."

"_Fiancé_?"  Mr. Evans spluttered, while Petunia was eyeing James with something very close to loathing.  "You—you're getting _married_?"

He cast a quick look around, noticing the people that were staring at them.  "Er—well, shall we discuss this at home?"  
He didn't wait for an answer; simply turned curtly around and left the station.  James pulled Lily's shirt sleeve.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but that didn't seem like a 'Oh, hi, I'm so pleased to meet my daughter's future husband' greeting."

Lily rolled her eyes.  "I didn't exactly expect that kind of welcome, so this isn't too bad.  Come on; this way—we can't Apparate yet."

"I know that!"  James was indignant.  "I'm getting my license any time now, though!"

She rolled her eyes.  "Just follow my father."

He obeyed her, and they trailed her father, sister, and co. to the car outside.  Mr. Evans decided to have a large problem with James sitting next to Lily, and at first, he wanted Petunia to sit in the front seat.  Petunia refused, as she was currently not intending to leave Vernon's side, so Lily got shunted to the front and James was wedged into the few inches between Vernon's bulk and the car door.  

They finally got home, and all of them were herded into the living room by Mr. Evans.  He himself took the largest chair, cleared his throat, ran his hand over his now balding head, and spoke in what was intended to be an intimidating voice.  

"So.  This is my little girl's fiancé?"

"Yes."  Lily wasn't losing her cool one bit; she wasn't letting her father wreck the rest of her existence by pulling them apart, and she really didn't see how he proposed to do that.

"I thought it is the usual procedure to ask the father for his daughter's hand before asking the lady herself, isn't that right?"

"No."

"You have no _manners_," he spat at James, who hadn't said a word.  Lily had said "no."

"I'm assuming you don't have a job?"  
James spoke.  "I have a prospect as an Auror at the Ministry of Magic.  Sir," he added."

Mr. Evans frowned, clearly trying to mask the fact that half of that sentence had gone straight over his head.  "Auror?"  
"Yes.  Sir," James replied; "I'm anticipating a job as part of the newly formed team fighting Lord Voldemort."__

Lily poked James in the side.  _"He doesn't know what an Auror is or who Lord Voldemort is.  He's a Muggle."_

"Oh," James mumbled.  "Sorry."

"I insist on your including me in your interesting conversation!" Mr. Evans glared.  "What was that, young man?"

James sighed, a bit fed up with the overprotective father act.  "I fight bad guys."

Petunia tried not to snort, but she ended up spraying something from inside her nose all over the coffee table, then laughed when James scooted away.

Mr. Evans turned to Lily.  "So, I assume you still intend to marry someone without a speck of manners or a job?"

"Dad," Lily frowned; "his parents are some of the richest families in England.  He doesn't need a job."

"_Don't use that tone with me, young lady!_"

"Ah," Lily observed dryly.  "I have advanced to the position of 'young lady' from 'little girl' in a matter of minutes.  How exciting.  If this continues, I might be the Queen of the Universe before the day ends."

There was a rather ugly vein in Mr. Evans' neck that was popping interestingly, though it didn't seem prudent to point this out.  Lily didn't point it out; she turned to James.

"I'd suggest you leave the room for a second—_Petunia_, get him a drink of something."

Petunia didn't budge.

"Petunia, my pocket has my wand in it, and I am currently a licensed witch with a bad temper.  Go get James something to drink."

Petunia jumped up, looking for all the world as if she'd just sat down on a darning needle and it had taken a quarter of an hour to realize how far it had punctured her backside.  She pulled Vernon out of the living room with her, and they shut the door with a muffled crash.

Lily turned to her father.  "Proceed."

"I will not have this!  You have learned nothing at that—that _Pigpimples_ place but to turn toads into toothpicks and to be unutterably rude to your elders!  Now, I tell you now—" his voice got extremely soft and dangerous—"that you are to start living a _normal_ life from now on, without this—" he waved his hand towards the kitchen in disgust—"this _wizard_.  Is that understood?"  
"Er—no."

His eyes narrowed.  "I will _not_ have you associating with trash like that!"  
"Dad," Lily said calmly, "if you're insisting on calling him that, then I am also 'trash like that'."

"If you continue to associate with those abnormal people, yes, you are!"

She held up a hand.  "I was under the impression that you approved of my schooling at Hogwarts."  
"_I_ held no approval for it.  Your mother liked the idea."

"So you go by whatever women say, is that it?"

"Lily Evans," her father glared, "your mouth is growing faster than the rest of you.  I am your _father_, your guardian, and until you are of age, I am empowered to control you.  You are _not_ marrying this young—this _wizard_—you are _not_ leaving this house without my permission, _and_ you are marrying someone sensible.  Sensible meaning someone I approve of."

If there was anything that infuriated Lily, it was someone trying to control her completely, and that was exactly what he was intending to do.  She rose to her feet.

"I am _not_—"

"_No_ _talking_ _back_ _to_ _me_, _miss_!" Mr. Evans roared, also standing up.  "You are not having anything else to do with that abnormal community, even if it means my snapping your wand in half!  I will not stand for that!"

Her hair was starting to wave wildly around her face.  "I'm not taking orders from you any more!  I knew I should have stayed away—I wouldn't have come back this summer if it hadn't been for the engagement!  I was going to stay on as a teacher at Hogwarts, and I'd have lived there till I got a better position!  I _hate_ this Muggle world, and I can safely say I'm terribly embarrassed to be related to some!"

"DON'T YOU TALK LIKE THAT TO ME, YOUNG LADY!"  He was inches from her face, practically spitting at her.  "YOU ARE GOING TO YOUR ROOM _RIGHT_ _NOW_, AND I AM NOT TO HEAR OF THIS NONSENSE AGAIN!"

"Fine."  Lily's fury had outwardly evaporated with that shouted order, and she stepped back.  "Fine."

Leaving a baffled Mr. Evans in the living room, she moved towards the door, which swung open of her own accord; the only sign of the anger and frustration inside her.  

"James!"

He looked up, extremely relieved to see her.  "Yes?"

"Come _here_!"

She pointed towards the front door.  "Get our trunks, your broom, and your cloak."

James vanished out of sight, and Mr. Evans appeared in the kitchen.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, YOUNG LADY?"

"Going to my room," she glared.  "My _hotel_ room.  In a _bridal_ suite.  Have fun missing me."

Lily swung around and slammed the front door behind her, seating herself on James' broom; he'd already tied their trunks to it and performed an anti-gravity spell on them.  Tersely, she pointed to the cloak, which he quickly flung over both her and himself; that done, they rose into the air.

A few minutes into their flight, Lily poked James in the back.

"I don't like your broom."

He laughed.  "There's not much I can do about that."

"I want a flying carpet!" she complained.  "Those don't hurt your backsides!"

He took her hand.  "Look, I'm sorry about what happened back at your house."

"Former house," she spat.

"Yeah…well, I'm sorry it didn't go well."

She sighed and leaned against his back.  "It's not your fault.  I shouldn't have lost my temper."

James steered the broom straight into a cloud, smiling when Lily let out a shout of ecstatic laughter as the blast of wet droplets clashed into her cheeks and eyes.

"Hey…Lily?"

"Hum?"

"Where're we going now?—is my house all right?"

"You don't have a _house_, James, you have a _mansion_.  You have _several_ mansions.  You do not call such a construction a _house_."

"My house it is, then," he grinned.

He landed in the alley behind the Leaky Cauldron; from there they proceeded to the fireplace.  They would have landed in front of the pub, but even Muggles would have noticed if a broom, two trunks, and two teenagers appeared out of nowhere.

James led Lily inside, taking a pinch of Floo powder from a small dish on the mantelpiece.  Throwing two Knuts into a jar and the powder into the fireplace, he shouted, "La Versailles!"

Both of them stepped into the green, roaring flames together, carrying their trunks with one hand and holding the other's hand with their free one. Coughing soot out of their lungs, they landed in the Hall of Mirrors in James' mansion.

Lily had been here before, but that didn't prevent her eyes opening as wide as they could go to drink in her surroundings.  James had to poke her in the side to make her pay attention.

"Huh?"

He smiled.  "Mum and Dad's offices are this way.  Coming?  Mum'll probably be in hers right now."

Lily nodded.  "I'd like to see your mother again."  She rolled her eyes.  "Can't get much worse than my father, now, can it?"

"No," James agreed, "it can't.  Come on—Mum's got the Marie Antoinette room as her office…"

He led her through a series of stunning chambers until they got to the room that was a replica of the last Queen of France's.  It was like and yet unlike the one in France; the large bed wasn't in the room, though its canopy was; it had been replaced by a beautiful carved wooden desk inlaid with gold; the gold railing stopped at the sides of the desk.  Bookshelves lined the walls, and the ceiling had the same beautiful painting on it that Lily remembered from the French palace.

These were only details that Lily noticed later; her eyes were drawn to the lady sitting behind the desk and finishing what looked like a letter.  It was Mrs. Potter; her robes were a pale lavender-blue, and her eyes, intensified through the reading glasses she wore, were the same stunning violet-blue.  Her robes swung around her gently as she removed her glasses and rose to greet the couple.

"James, dear!  I'm so happy you're home—and Lily."  She eyed the auburn-headed girl approvingly.  "You're simply lovely, dear.  I know you two will be extremely happy."  She shot a sly glance at her son.  "After all the family dinners he's taken up raving about you, you'd better be!"

"Hey!"  James flushed dark red.  "I did _not_!"

Mrs. Potter winked.  "Of course; you wouldn't have dreamed of it."  

He opened his mouth to protest, but she stopped him with a warning glance.

"I'd like to say something to both of you.  I know you two do intend to get married right away, and I'm supporting that.  When I was getting married to your father, James, my parents dictated my entire wedding—and I absolutely hated it."

Lily thought she knew where this was going, and a large smile was starting to creep over her face.

"Therefore, I'm not getting mixed up in your wedding.  Lily—I'm not handing you a budget, and I'm making Fred finance your honeymoon."

"Wow."  Lily's eyebrows rose.  "We're getting a _honeymoon_?"

"Of course!"  Mrs. Potter looked surprised that Lily had asked.  "I wouldn't dream of your not having one!  Mine and Fred's lasted for two years."  She frowned.  "His mother insisted.  It was the 'thing' to do at that time."  Her face cleared.  "I'm not making you do anything, though—this is your time together, and I'm giving you full reign to enjoy it."  
Lily took James' arm.  "I like your mother!"

"Mercenary little brat."  He kissed her head.  "I do, too, though, come to that."

Mrs. Potter smiled, hugging both of them.  "I love both of you, you know that?"  She let go and looked both of them in the eyes.  "Now, where are you two planning to have your wedding?"

James turned to Lily.  "That's right.  Where _are_ we planning to have our wedding?"  
Lily's mischievous smile started to blossom, and James' stomach dropped.  

"Elven Point, Madagascar."

"Elven Point?"  
"Yes," Lily almost sighed.  "It's beautiful—it's a hilltop overlooking the sea—with leafy trees and wild, blooming flowers, and with a heart-of-the ocean blue sky…"

She snapped back to reality.  "Does anyone mind?"

James hugged her.  "You're planning all our social events from now on.  I don't think anyone else would have thought of Madagascar—out of curiosity, why _did_ you pick that place?"

She smiled, tossing her hair over her shoulder.  "It sounded like a magic formula—just the name did, and I-well." Lily shrugged.  "I think the name's beautiful."

Mrs. Potter picked up a sheet of parchment and a quill.  "James, if I'd had such a creative husband, I'd be happier than I am now, which is saying a lot…"  She dipped the quill in the ink.  "Will you be leaving right away and making plans from there?"

"I thought we might take a ship there," James flashed at his mother, "if no one minds."

Lily's eyes widened, almost glowing.  "We _really_ could do that?"

He laughed.  "If it'll make you happy, of course we could!"

Mrs. Potter hugged Lily.  "Remember—no budget!"

Lily's smile turned mischievous.  "I'm going to have fun!"

They left the office and walked slowly towards the Grecian family wing of the house.  It was only when they came to their room surrounded by the beautiful stone columns and Lily had seated herself on one of the cushioned divans that she asked James something that had been nagging at her for some time.

"James?"  
"Yes?"  He was sitting across from her, having just unearthed a tray of grapes and roasted songbirds. 

"Who do you think's going to be giving me away?"

James shrugged.  "Whoever you want—Remus, maybe, or my father—I'd suggest Sirius, but he's already my best man.  Who do you think?"  
Lily dropped her head, fiddling with a piece of thread on her shirt.  "I was thinking maybe Severus."

"_What_?"  James almost spit out a mouthful of food.  "_Snape_?"

"Yes."  Lily ran her fingers through her hair.  "_Severus_."

James took a handful of his own hair in his fist, yanking on it.  "Lily, I don't want him at my _wedding_, much less have him walk you down the aisle!"

Lily dropped her skein of auburn.  "James, unless you want me to elope with him, I strongly suggest you let me have him give me away."

"Urgh."  James grumbled.  "He'd better be giving you away with no plans of taking you back, is all I'm saying."

Lily smiled with an obvious sense of superiority, taking James' hand.  "Don't worry.  I wouldn't let him do that."  
James looked up.  "That's nice to hear."  He reached over and pulled her onto the floor and his lap.  "Especially nice to hear, coming from the object of all male affections."  
"All male affections?"  Lily raised her eyebrows skeptically.  "As much as I'd like to believe that, I am _not_ that wonderful a person."

"Yes, you are!"  James protested.  "You're beautiful and funny and smart and brave and talented and creative and—"

"Oh, please," Lily interrupted, rolling onto the floor and onto her stomach.  "Don't make me hurl."

"You are!  I don't see why you chose me—you could have any one you chose to, really!"

"James," Lily said dryly, "I think the encounter with my father just proved you wrong."

"Eh."  James twisted his mouth at the memory of it.  "Eh, well.  He's your _father_.  That would be just _wrong_."  

"Shut up!" Lily grinned, slapping him on the arm.  "It's not too late to change my mind, now," she warned.

"Okay, okay."  James caught her wrist, grinning slyly.  "I'll trade it for an occupation I like better."  

He leaned down and kissed her, catching her severely off her guard.

Only a few hours later, the two of them were getting ready for the ship that was to take them to Madagascar.  It was small; only about fifteen passengers would fit on it, after all—it was exclusively for the wedding guests.  Enchanted so that it would steer without a captain or crew, it was built in the style of what Lily could only imagine as the Chronicles of Narnia's _Dawn_ _Treader_—with a beautifully carven figurehead at the prow and a deep, silky, indigo sail.  There were no rower's benches, however, and below deck was filled with about twenty rooms—fifteen being cabins, one a dining hall and several sitting rooms.  

It was a beautiful ship; her wood was smooth teak, and she shimmered in the sunlight with an iridescent glimmer.  

Lily herself had been presented with a beautiful pair of robes by Mrs. Potter—they were indigo silk, matching the sail.  There were two long, wide strips of indigo silk fastened at each shoulder; from there they hung to her knees, leaving her arms free.  A belt of the same material, knotted into a cord, tied around her waist in front, and a small veil hung down her back, fastened to her hair several inches above her ears; it didn't encumber her face or cover the crown of her head.  She felt like an other-world fairy as she hugged Mr. and Mrs. Potter goodbye, and, taking James' arm, ascended the gangplank.

He looked nice, too, she thought.  His robes were dark blue, the color of his eyes, and he reminded her of a mermish king—at least somewhat.  It was the blue that made Lily think of the ocean, the blue of his eyes and his robes…

The wind was blowing softly when they stepped onto the deck, alone for those few seconds.  Then their friends followed; naturally, Sirius, Peter, and Remus, and Lora, Eva, Vanessa, and Amanda.  Frank Longbottom was also joining them.  Lily hadn't allowed James to make Severus Apparate, so he and Lucius were coming, too—though Lily had had to bury her face in James' shoulder to keep from laughing publicly at Lucius' escort.  He was the only one that had brought one—Serena was hanging on his arm.

"She doesn't lose any time, does she?" Eva had mumbled in Lily's ear.  "First James, now Malfoy…"

Lily had tugged James' sleeve.  "I don't want her to be at my wedding!" she had hissed loudly.  "I will not!"

James grinned evilly at her.  "You had to have Snape, didn't you?  Live with the consequences, my dear!"

Lily groaned.  "Sometimes I wonder why I'm marrying you."

He draped his arm around her waist.  "Because you can't resist my irresistible personage!"

"Irresistible," she laughed.  "I'll believe that when I see it!"

"When you see it?"  His eyebrows rose.  "You're the one that's standing here, letting me hug you and wearing my ring!"

She wrinkled her nose.  "True."

"So, are you disappointed?" he taunted.  "Want to find someone completely irresistible instead of this handsome, Quidditch-playing, muscular, intelligent person in front of you that's absolutely obsessed with your every movement?"

Lily ruffled his hair, which, in all honesty, didn't need to be ruffled.  "You!  Modest, are we?"

"Don't need to be; you're modest enough for the both of us."  He kissed her quickly, then turned her around, his hands still around her waist, so that her back was against his chest and her head next to his.  

"I'm guessing we'd better pay attention to them, right?"  He was nodding at the rest of the guests and his parents, who were all on deck.

Sirius came jogging over.  "James!  Long time no see, old bean!"

"Damn straight!"  James pulled Sirius into a one-armed hug.  "All of about several hours!"

Sirius stepped back, staring quizzically at the two.  "Happy bride and groom, eh?"

"Sirius!"  Lily's face flushed.  "We're not married yet!"

Sirius simply grinned at them.  "I'm sure Snape'll be delighted to come along on this trip, won't he?"

"Oh, wait till you hear this."  James pulled Sirius aside.  "Lily invited him to walk her down the aisle!"

"_What_?"

"I know!  Only about five minutes after I said okay, she could, she owls him—and he _had_ to come on this cruise ship, too, didn't he?"  James mock-glared at Lily, who tossed her hair and veil in his face.

"I'll have you know that I invited him expressly for the purpose of eloping with him five minutes before the ceremony.  Do lighten up about that!"

Sirius pulled her hair teasingly.  "But now his best friend's brought your little enemy, hasn't he?"

Lily sighed.  She flicked the ends of her sleeves in Sirius face and turned back to James.

"_Please_ let me order her off the ship!  _Please_!"

"Oh, no!" James grinned.  "I get to have my amusement, too!"

Lora and the Doylen twins joined them.  "All one big, happy family, are we?"

James put an arm around Lily.  "Very nicely put!"

Suddenly, Lily twisted away, facing the prow, an ecstatic glow in her eyes.  "Look—we're launching!"

Eva clamped a hand over her mouth.  "What say I go down below?  I don't have my sea legs yet…"

"I'll join you," Frank declared.  "I'd better find out where my cabin is, anyway."

"Good idea," Peter chorused.  "I'll come, too!"

Within moments, the entire deck was empty, except for the two honored guests, who stood resting against the railing, the wind blowing in their faces, and the dusky, red-streaked sunset covering the ocean's waves and their figures.

James pulled a lock of hair away from her ear.  "Happy?"

"Terribly," she sighed.  
They were silent again as they watched the sun set to their right.  They were leaning against the railing; his arm was around her waist, and the indigo silk from her robes was flickering around the carven wooden columns supporting the banister.  Once, the prow dipped so far down into the sea that a clash of seawater hit the hull, sending a few salty droplets into their faces.

They were out of sight of land in minutes, and they were facing the open sea while the sun was still setting.  Quickly, the gold faded into scarlet, the scarlet into indigo, and the indigo into a dusky blueish purple that tinted the sea a lovely deep blue.  Their ship was alone in the ocean; no boats of any other kind, no airplanes disturbed the quiet.  Lily sighed and let her head fall against James' shoulder.

"I wish this could last forever."

"So do I," James whispered.

A cough from behind them made James turn around sharply; Lily took no notice of it; her eyes were fastened on the horizon.

"What do you want?"  
Lily heard Severus' voice from a distance.  "I just want to talk to Lily, that's all."  
Irritably, James let go of Lily.  "You couldn't have waited, could you?  At least till we're at dinner or something—God, did you have to butt in?"

"Hey, I said absolutely _nothing_ to you to make you mad!"

"Yeah, you did!  Just you presence within one hundred miles of me makes me livid!"

Lily was getting annoyed herself.  "James," she interrupted, "_shut_ _up_!"

James turned to her in surprise.  "_What did you just say?"_

"You're being a prat.  Severus wanted to talk to me, and he's waited about an hour.  Don't be so oversensitive."  She turned to Severus.  "Wait for me.  I'll be inside in a minute."  
James slammed his hand against the figurehead.  "No.  Talk to him out here.  I'm going inside."  Angry about something he couldn't pin down, he stormed off of the deck and slammed the door to the lower floors.


	66. Landing at Elven Point, Madagascar

::cowers down in corner::  I know, I KNOW, it's been ages since I've got my lazy butt back at the computer!  Part of the reason for that, though, is that my mom's managed to add passwords to the computer, so I can only get on when she's home, which is about nine at night.  And weekends I've gotta 'help the family' by painting the house, since we're moving shortly.  Grr.  Plus, I just got cast for a play, so most weekdays and Saturdays and Sundays are pretty much plubbrth when it comes to writing any more.  But I'm hoping to convince her to take the password off soon, so I can get on in the middle of the night again!  (Though I strongly suspect that's why she installed it in the first place…)

Okay; 'nuff jabber.  Here's the continuation:

(And I hereby also thank each and every one of my reviewers so heartily they're gonna have trouble breathing after my hugs.  You guys are awesome!)

--Sohara

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Severus turned towards Lily.  She was facing the horizon again, but a tear was running down her cheek.

"Hey, Lily…it's not the end of the world."

"Yes, it is," she said clearly through her tears.  "He _is_ my world."

As much as he might have laughed at James for saying the same thing about Lily, Severus was only touched by her words.  He awkwardly moved next to her, leaning on the railing.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be."  She ran her hand over her eyes quickly, then dropped the water from her tears into the ocean.  "He was being an idiot.  Don't bother.  Ignore him.  Don't pay any attention to him.  He's not worth it.  He's not—[i]_Oh, yes, he is![/_i]" she burst out, fresh tears running down and dropping onto her gown.  "Yes, he is!"

She tried to press her fist in front of her mouth to stop the shaking, but it continued, deriving her of any self-confidence she might have had earlier.  Severus turned her around, concerned, taking a strand of her hair and placing it behind her ears.  

"Lily, calm down.  What's wrong?"

"I don't know," she managed.  "I'm just scared.  Scared that everything'll go wrong, that something will happen before or after the wedding, and I'll be left alone.  It's unreasonable, it's pointless, but I'm scared!"  She let her head fall onto her arms.  "I've disliked him for the longest time, I know, and I would have given anything in the world to have him struck down by lightning only a year ago, but I can't help it!"

Severus frowned.  She was undergoing something closely bordering on hysteria, and he thought he knew why…

"Lily, Voldemort's not planning an attack on your wedding."

Lily quickly snapped to attention.  "What?  Why—how—"

He shrugged.  "I'm part of his company, right?  He's not planning to kill James at your wedding."  
Immensely relieved, she smiled at him through a veil of water.  "I don't know how I'd get along without you."

Severus grinned back.  "I suppose my mission now is to let you be happy, whatever life you choose to lead."  His face grew more serious.  "Are you [i]_sure_[/i] you want me to walk you down the aisle?"  
  


"Of course!"  Lily bit her lip.  "You're the closest to a relative I have now.  I don't know James' family—and my father's almost threatened to disown me if I marry James.  Of course, you!"

He took her face in his hands and wiped her tears away.  "You know, go in to Po—James…I don't think he likes the idea of me being anywhere alone with you."

Lily's eyes lit up her face with a soft, exotic glimmer.  "Severus, thank you.  You've been more to me than I'd ever deserve—thank you."

Severus nodded towards the lower decks, from which the soft sounds of clinking metal, china, and laughter came.  "Go on."

She didn't turn back; she flitted across the deck, vanishing in the shadow of the indigo sail.  For a short instant her silhouette was visible in the golden light of the doorway, but then she closed it, and the light drained from the deck.

Instinctively, though she hadn't been below deck in this galleon before, she knew where to find James.  Without hesitating, she turned several corridors, finally stopping before a partly opened teakwood door, inlaid with gold.  

He was slouching in a divan; half of the cushions were spilled all over the floor, the others were disarranged, though he hadn't taken any notice of that.  His gaze was fixed on the immense window that took up the entire wall across from the door.  Finely made glass was ornamented with slim iron designs, etched with gold leaf; the central point of the window was placed at the top, over the bed in the room—it was two rings, intertwined.  He was sadly glaring at them, as though it was something he was hoping for.

Neither of them knew why the small argument had started.  James had lost his temper for no reason at all, and Lily's hysteria had simply come upon her—but the reasons behind everything were the first things pushed out of their minds as he saw her standing in the doorway, then held her tightly as she dropped onto the floor in front of him, crying softly.

A few minutes later, he lifted her head up.  "Lily—I'm sorry."

"About what?" she sniffed

"I guess losing my temper at Snape—I can't exactly forget that he'd absolutely die to be engaged to you.  I—I didn't mean to upset you."

Lily dried her eyes.  "It wasn't you—well, not really.  It's just that everything was too good to be true, and I was scared of what might happen—with Tom, and—"

He kissed the crown of her head, moving the veil out of the way.  "What say we go down to dinner?"

She smiled up at him.  "What say we do."

They entered the dining hall only moments later, taking their seats at the head of the large table.  Lora insisted on carving their slices of roast goose, and everyone had to laugh when she managed to let the knife turn several somersaults and land in the middle of a dish of something Danish that Lily couldn't recognize.  

The dining room itself was a work of art.  The walls were a light brown wood, and marble sculptures lined the corners between the ceiling and the walls.  There were no doors; one wall was in the same style as the window in James' and Lily's room—a beautiful window, with the two intertwined rings as a central decoration.  The chairs were carved of the same wood as the walls and the ship itself; its cushions were white silk, as was the tablecloth.  The plates were golden, as were the utensils, while the tall, elegant glasses with a rim of gold around the tops were fine crystal.  

The food was marvelous; if Lily had thought the Hogwarts dishes were delicious, it was nothing to these.  Indian pastries in small trays, pots of Japanese tea, Italian bread, German Bratwurst, seasoned Native American corn, French wine and foie gras, a Russian soup, and breadfruit pieces.  Lily's eyes sparkled as she saw the array of dishes and pictured the lands that they came from.

Eva poked her in the side.  "You're supposed to eat the food, not stare at it!"

Lily grinned.  "But it looks so nice!"

"Exactly!  See if it lives up to its looks!" Eva declared as she pointed to a bottle of wine in an ice bucket next to James.  "That stuff isn't bad, and I don't even like grape juice.  Try."

Lily bit her lip.  "Eva, I don't like alcohol!"

"Neither do I—well, neither [i]_did_[/i] I."

Lily laughed, and just at that minute James had filled her glass with something burgundy.  She looked at him questioningly.

"Lily, it's just wine.  Mum's had me drink it at parties since I was tiny."

"It was diluted!" Mrs. Potter interrupted.  "I am [i]_not_[/i] that kind of mother!"

The redhead laughed, flicking her veil behind her back.  She picked up her glass, and James clinked it against hers.

"It won't kill you, Lil.  To my fantastic union with the loveliest, smartest, bravest, most talented girl in existence!"

"Oh?"  Lily raised her eyebrows.  "Who're you marrying now?"

He frowned at her.  "What?"

"I do [i]_not_[/i] fit that description."

"Oh, yes, you do!" he retorted.  "Well, if you don't want to toast to that, how about this?"  James cleared his throat.  "To your union with the most handsome, clever, amazing, wanted, brilliant, Quidditch player in the world!"  

He caught sight of her face, which was torn between amusement and disgust.  "What?"  
  


"I think we're both marrying different people than we think we are."

Everyone burst out laughing, even James' parents.  Sirius' hoot carried over the clamor.

"She's right on that one, James!"

"Oh, thanks," James muttered.  "Does no one think highly of me?"  
  


"No one does," Eva confirmed.  "You do.  You being 'no one'."

"Oh, thanks," he repeated, grumbling.  "I feel unloved!"

Lily gave in, hugging him.  "You're not."

The moment was ruined by Peter's fondness for clumsiness.  Sighing deeply, he flung an arm over his eyes, lost his balance, and promptly landed on the floor, letting out a loud "OUCH!"

The company of fifteen started to laugh at his disgruntled face appearing over the table rim.  Serena applauded nastily.

"Oh, well done!"

Lily's eyebrow arched.  "We're supposed to be laughing at him [i]_nicely_[/i], dear."

Serena shrugged.  "What does that matter to me?"  
  


"It's common politeness," Lily said slowly, as if it should be extremely obvious, even to squashed ice cubes.

Lucius pulled Serena's sleeve, and he shook his head slightly at her.  A bit annoyed, Serena pushed back her chair and left the room; Lucius following her.

"Well," Eva commented, "no great loss there!"

Lily figured Serena wouldn't enjoy hearing more laughter, seeing that it was most certainly about her, so she had no qualms joining in on it.  Lily held grudges, and she hadn't forgotten the slap Serena had given James the night of their engagement.  His and Lily's, that is; she had no idea whether he'd asked Serena to marry him before.  Still, she highly doubted it, as she looked at James' amused countenance.

Lily hadn't really noticed before, but everyone on the ship had been given new and different clothing.  The girls were in dark pink trimmed with gold, while the boys were wearing a nice shade of dusky blue.  Mr. and Mrs. Potter were in dark scarlet robes, and the material of everyone's clothing was an expensive silk.  Lily almost shuddered to think of the cost of this trip, and how much could have been saved if they had simply Apparated to Madagascar.  Thank goodness James' family was one of the richest wizarding ones in England…

Everyone moved onto the deck later, to talk—several people had pulled out about ten divans from the sitting rooms below deck.  Drinks were also on a small table, though Lily hadn't finished her first one—it was nice, yes, but she had to get used to it.

She and James were sitting together, as was expected by everyone—Mr. and Mrs. Potter had retired; gone to bed, and Lily was amused to see that Frank was sitting next to Eva, shyer than he usually was.

The conversation had started with their last days at Hogwarts; then it moved on to taunting Eva's, Vanessa's, and Amanda's position as students.  Amanda shot out the first remark she could think of, quickly, before Peter started telling them how young they were, then trying to perform a charm supposedly beyond their abilities and ended up hexing himself into having three arms.  He'd done that before.

"Lily—where's your honeymoon going to be?"  
  


The group's faces turned towards Lily, who smiled satisfactorily at James, who grinned at the group.

"We're not telling.  I'm not having any of you show up in the middle of it, pranking us!"

"Yeah, James," Lora cracked, "you want some alone time, is that it?"

"Hey, is that illegal?" James protested, not blushing at all.  Everyone else started to laugh.

"What?" he protested.  "I'm getting married, am I not?  And if I want my handsomeness to continue on down the line, I've got to have time alone with her, don't I?"

Lily groaned.  "If I ever do work up the courage to go through the pain of having a child, I'm praying to every existing deity that he or she doesn't have your lack of modesty."

James looked offended.  "You mean you don't want children?"

Lora laughed.  "Breaking news, James:  it is a painful process for US.  Besides, do we [i]_honestly_[/i] want to have little bitty Potters dotted all over the globe?"

Lily took James' arm.  "If they've got my discretion, I wouldn't mind."

"I won't comment on that!"  Amanda shouted.  "I definitely won't comment!"

"Good," Sirius grumbled.  "We don't want to hear it." 

Everyone stared at him, but refrained from asking what brought on his bad mood.

Later that evening, Lily was gazing out of the large window in their room; she was fascinated by the moonless midnight sky flashed with stars, cleared of any clouds.  She smiled with exhilaration as she knelt down on the burgundy silk covers, brushing her long, auburn hair almost dreamily.

James sat down next to her.  "What're you thinking?"

She sighed, letting the brush drop.  "I'm just happy, that's all…"

He grinned.  "Good."

Lily flopped back, her head landing in his lap.  "You know, in only a few days, I'll be abandoning my Evans name forever…"

"You don't have to, you know," James interjected.  "I won't make you…or you could keep it as a middle name."

"Are you kidding?"  Lily sat straight up.  "I am [i]_not_[/i] keeping my father's name!  He threatened to practically disown me if I married you—do you honestly think I want his name hanging onto mine forever?"

"Whoa, whoa!"  He held his hands up in protest.  "I did not say that!  And I'm sorry.  I just wanted you to know I'm not going to be trying to control you later on or anything."  
She smiled.  "That's nice to hear.  I'll remember that."

He ran his hand through her hair.  "I'm engraving everything you say into my memory."

Lily let her head drop onto his shoulder, and she pulled the pale golden nightgown down over her feet.  "That's nice to hear…though I don't plan on dying anytime soon."

"Good," James replied, "'cause you're only dying over my dead body."  He pulled her face towards his and kissed her gently.

It was a beautiful trip, lasting four days; at the end of which, they rounded the point of Africa and landed on the southern tip of Madagascar.  Lily was almost sad to leave the ship; she had spent hours sitting curled up in front of the figurehead, letting the wind blow her hair wildly and the salty waves soak her skin.  They had had no storms; not even a gale; the weather had been clear, sunny, and beautiful for all of the four days.

Lily was packing up two pairs of robes, a necklace, and a pair of earrings Mr. and Mrs. Potter had presented her with during the trip; she was now in the indigo robes again.  James was searching everywhere for the match to one of his shoes; he finally held it up triumphantly; it had been shoved underneath the bed.

"Ta-daah!"

Lily sat back on her heels.  "How did that get down there?" she laughed, pushing bits of hair behind her ear.

"I don't know," James shrugged.  "I kick my shoes off; that's all--whatever happens to them afterwards is none of my concern till I have to look for them again."

"Ach!"  Lily threw a sock at him.  "How did this get in my jewelry box?"

"I don't know!" he grinned disarmingly.  "How would I know?"

"I [i]_wonder_[/i], Mr. Potter."

Remus banged the door open.  "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

"Yes, you are," Lily grinned.  "The Mystery of the Sock in the Jewelry Box."

Remus rolled his eyes.  "We're docking in minutes—and no, you don't have to bring your bags—that'll be taken care of."  
Lily looked at James, who had just slammed his small trunk shut.  "Ready, then?"

James stood up, shaking imaginary dust from his robes.  "Sure."  He held his arm out to Lily.  "My lady?"

She smiled, taking his arm and sweeping out of the door, the long veil fluttering enchantingly behind her.  Within moments, they reached the deck, and they joined Sirius, Eva, and Frank at the railing.  Land was rapidly coming into view.

It was a lovely sight, too.  Obviously hidden from Muggle view, it had pure white sand and blue zircon ocean waves adorning its beaches; leafy trees breezily shadowed the coastline.  The morning sun cast white-gold rays over the whole scene, making it look like something from a storybook. Lily sighed dreamily when she saw it.

Sirius looked over at her.  "Ready for the big day?"

"Definitely,"  Lily nodded.  "It's sudden…and it's soon—but I'm glad it's taking place so quickly.  I keep thinking I'm in a dream, I've been so happy."

James hugged her.  "If this is a dream, neither you or I better wake up!"

They were the first ones to set foot on the white, powdery, glittering sand; everyone else followed them.  Lily gazed around her—this was the most beautiful scene she had ever found herself in.  

James wrapped his arm around her waist.  "I like your choice of location."

She leaned against his chest.  "I do, too…it's more fascinating than I thought it would be."

Mrs. Potter came up behind them.  "Ready, Lily?"

Lily turned to her future mother-in-law.  "Ready for what?"

Eva put her arm around Lily's free shoulder.  "What do you think?  It'll take us some time to get your hair ready—not to forget jewelry, and—"

Lily blanched.  "James!"

He grinned at her.  "What?"  
  


"Help!"


	67. There's the nearest cliff

She was pulled back onto the ship by the girls, though Serena was nowhere to be seen.  James' parents were handing a list of something to several of the boys, and the rest were greeting a man Lily only caught a glimpse of.  Lily could only think that it was royally idiotic to make her step off of the galleon in the first place, but she supposed it was some kind of newfound tradition—the couple being the first to step onto the island…  

The girls had shut themselves into the smaller sitting room, the one with a large, old mirror on the wall.  Lily sighed deeply as she saw Eva pick up her brush.

"Eva—can't you spare me this torture?"  
  


"Nope."  Eva shook her head determinedly.  "You wouldn't let us touch you for the thousandth year ball, so now we get our chance."  
  


"Eva," Lily glared, "I am _not_ having paint smeared onto my face!"

"But—"

"This is _my_ wedding!  If I had it my way, we wouldn't be doing this at all!"

"Fine."  Eva sighed.  "But we get to have fun with your hair."

Lily slumped back into her chair, conscious that she was wrinkling the silk robes sadly, but at the same time not caring.  Taking this for submission, Eva pulled parts of her hair to one side and started to brush it out.

Lily and James had taken their Apparition tests before setting off on the voyage, so they could at least be allowed to Apparate while on their honeymoon, and Lily was seriously considering that option.  However, she decided, much against her judgment, to surrender.

Lora pulled a sliding panel open and dramatically revealed a something covered in brown paper.  Lily raised both eyebrows.

"Oh!"  Lora was fed up.  "Haven't you _ever_ gone shopping?"  She tore the brown paper off, revealing something white, silky, and gauzy.  The girls fell silent, and Lily slowly stretched out a hand towards it.

"You like?"  

"It…it's _beautiful_…"

"See," Eva tossed her head, "I told you Mrs. Potter had good taste."

"Mrs. Potter?" Lily was lost.  

Amanda sighed.  "Mrs. Potter had her seamstress make this; when it was ready, she Apparated back to her house—no, scratch that, mansion—she picked it up, along with lots of—"

"Amanda!"

"—other stuff," Amanda grinned, "and it's been in here for about a day or two.  Lora was snooping."  
Lora looked insulted.  "I was not!"

"Fine."  Eva sighed.  "You were architecturally interested in the structure of this ship, so you were sounding the walls with a tuning fork.  When you came to a stretch of wall that sounded different, you concluded your investigations by investigating.  That better?"

Dubiously, Lora shrugged.  "I think…"

"Er-_hum_!"  Lily interrupted.  "I have the strangest feeling that I'm shortly not going to be me anymore, and the custom seems to be that I have to get dressed up for that."

"Oh, right," Eva grinned.  She slipped an arm underneath the dress and held it out to Lily.  "Here.  Hold it up to you—see what you think."

Lily took hold of the gauzy sleeves, sliding out of the chair and holding it up to her body.

"It—wait!"

One of her hands hand been running over the seams, and they had caught a couple of loose threads, which seemed to be reciprocated all down the side of that dress.  Her hand fumbled at them, and she held up a torn seam.

"_Lily_!"  Amanda gasped.  "_What_—"

The dress was torn sadly in two places; at each side, from the waist to the floor.  There was a long veil that was pinned to the back of the dress, and that, too, was also ripped down the middle.  Almost aghast, the girls stared at each other.

"But—how—"

"It was perfectly fine before!"

"Oh—poor Lily!  What'll you wear?"

Lora, as usual, had her mind turned to less practical matters.  "I'll bet you anything I know who it was!  I would bet you my right toes I know who it was!"

"Lora," Lily smiled wryly, "I don't _want_ your right toes."

"Then my left?" Lora offered, grinning.

"Lora!" Eva scolded.  "We've got bigger things to worry about—what'll she wear to her wedding now?"

"Eva," Lily said calmly, "it's a funny little spell called _Reparo_."

"Oh."

Lily pulled out her wand and pointed it at the dress, repeating the spell almost lazily.  "_Reparo_."

They watched expectantly, but absolutely nothing happened.  Lily frowned.

"I am going to pull her hair out strand by strand."

"What'd she do?"

"Put a Shield Charm on it—problem is, I have to find out which one it is, which involves trial and failure, and since there are at least twenty-six I know of, _that'll_ take a while—plus I've got to undo it once I've found the one she used…and I can't sew it back together," she proved by trying to pinch the ripped edges together.  "I think I'm a bit at a loss…"  Her voice trailed off.  

Amanda frowned.  "I think you may be wearing a different dress."

Lily sighed, slumping again and letting the material drape over her knees.  Just then, however, her eyes caught a glint of gold; a ring Eva was wearing.  She snapped to attention.

"Maybe not!"

"Maybe not what?"  The girls were facing her with open eyes. 

"I'm doing some fixing up," Lily grinned mischievously.  "Someone find needles and thread for me—I'll work on this."

A good two hours later, Lily was finished.  She had hemmed the torn edges so that there was a piece of material in the back of her dress reaching to the front of her hipbones; then her sewing had left another piece hanging down in the front; smaller than the back piece.  The front part ended just at the soles of her feet, and Lily hadn't altered the train any; it still draped in back of the gown.  She had discarded the veil; it lay in a heap on the floor, and the sleeves had been changed to the same style as the indigo dress she was then wearing.  

Eva's mouth dropped; she hated leaving the worn roads of tradition.  "You are _not_!"

"Not what?"  Lily grinned innocently.

Eva turned to Amanda.  "Tell her she can't!"

"Can't what?" Amanda asked, honestly confused.

"Lora!  Help!"

"Help with _what_?"

Slapping a hand to her forehead, Eva sank to her knees.  "Lily, please don't!"

"Don't _what_?"

"Appear," Eva almost gasped, "at her own _wedding_ as—as—"

"As _WHAT_?"

"As some Egyptian queen," Eva spat out.

Lora and Amanda instantly swiveled towards Lily.  "Really?  You _are_?"

"Actually, I had Egyptian princess in mind…but if Eva says so, then queen it is."

Eva groaned.  "Lily, for once, be _normal_!  Please—for me—this is a wedding, not Halloween!"

Lily tossed her head.  "Exactly.  And it's mine, not yours.  Pray tell, what would you have done in my place?"  
  


"Worn a different dress," Eva said dryly.

"Nah, that's no fun," Lora agreed.  "Lily, there's a whole case of jewelry in the closet thing I pulled your dress from.  I'll rifle through that later."  
  


"Excuse me?"

"Okay, okay, _you'll_ rifle through that later."

"Much better.  Say, do we have any almond oil on this ship?"

Amanda frowned.  "I think—I'll check the large bathroom, but…"

She left the room, swinging the door shut behind her.  Eva stared at Lily questioningly.

Lily grinned.  "The ancient Egyptians soaked in water, scraped their skin with strigils, then rubbed oil into their skin afterwards.  Almond oil and the balm of Gilead were prized for that—but I doubt whether we have anything other than almond oil." 

Hours later, the girls let Lily out of the bathroom; they had washed and scrubbed her hair with just about every kind of cleaning and softening and brightening goop known to mankind, and by the time the bottle of almond oil was empty, Lily was kneeling in front of the white dress, wrapped in a long dressing gown.

"Here goes," she grinned.  Slipping the dress over her head, she let the dressing gown fall to the ground, and when the white silk draped to her feet, Lily turned to the mirror.

Even Eva had to smile, and Lora tugged another, smaller suitcase out of the sliding panel.  "Nice.  Only I rather doubt Cleopatra had red hair."

Lily tossed her hair over her shoulder.  "Cleopatra had Macedonian ancestry; we don't know if her skin color was dark and her hair was black or not."

Lora wrinkled her nose.  "You read too much."

Amanda let out what could almost have been called a huff.  "She's missing jewelry."

A half-hour later, Lily gazed into the mirror again.  A thick, gold necklace hung around her neck; an armband in the shape of a snake wound around her left upper arm, several gold threads hung from her ears, and one anklet hung around her foot.

"You know, I think James won't regret his decision," Lora grinned.  "I like what we've done to you!"

Lily twirled lightly on the balls of her feet, sweeping her train behind her.  "You know, I like what you've done to me, too."

Wickedly grinning, Eva held up a comb.  "We're not done yet!  Sit down; you promised to let me do your hair."

Standing up an hour later, Lily had to admit Eva had done a very good job.  Her curls were twisted and piled in the back of her head, with a gold band holding them in place; that same gold band ran around her forehead, where jade and gold sparkled sweetly.  She slipped into the white shoes that had fallen out of the brown paper along with the dress, and fancifully curtsied at her reflection.

"Goodbye, Lady Evans," she smiled.

There was a knock at the door that made each of the girls start; all except Lily.  She merely turned around and started for the door.  Eva held her back.

"Oh, no, you don't!  Manda.  Go get."

Amanda grinned as she slid the door open a notch.  "Yes?"  
Mrs. Potter's voice floated into the room.  "We're almost ready for her!"

"Okay!" Lora called.  "But come look at you future daughter!"

Mrs. Potter smiled as she slipped into the room, then stopped in astonishment as she saw Lily.

"Dear—what happened—"  
  


Lily frowned.  "The dress was vandalized—I had to fix it as best I could.  Are—are you angry?"

"Oh, no," Mrs. Potter smiled.  "I just would like to know _how_ it got damaged…"  She shook her head.  "Come on, dear—I'll walk you outside.  My son's already out there."

Lily's surroundings took on a dreamlike quality as she was swept out of the sitting room, which, with a flick of Mrs. Potter's wand, was restored to its neat condition.  They rose to the deck, the wind slowly ruffling the bride's gown and eyelashes as she took in the now white sail—white as the midday clouds, white and gauzy as her attire.

She stepped onto the sand, feeling the white, almost sugary masses part beneath her sandal.  Moving inland, towards the emerald forests lining the shore, they walked uphill slowly, Eva carrying the train looped around her arm.

James had been ushered to the top of Elven Point by the Marauders; a hill overlooking the ocean; its two sides lined with intertwining trees, its crest dropped down to meet the sea.  A carpet of leaves and wildflowers had been gathered, lining the path from the bottom of the hill to where James was standing, looking out over the ocean.

Sirius touched his shoulder.  "You all right?"  
  


"Yes…"  James mumbled.  "I'm a bit scared, though.  Of her—I don't know what I did to deserve her, and I'm scared she might think the same thing some day."

Sirius sighed, a sigh with something in it that James missed.  "Prongs, she loves you."

"Yes—" James said doubtfully, "but—"

"But nothing," Sirius said firmly.  "But nothing.  End of story.  Close book, take other book out of shelf entitled, _Honeymoon_ _and_ _Forever_ _After_.  Open it and read."

James grinned.  "You know, for once, I'm starting to think that maybe you're not so nuts after all."

"I am so!"

"_Sirius_!" Remus hissed.  "Turn him around!"

Sirius didn't have to do a thing; James spun around by himself.  

Through soft music playing in their ears, he saw a figure from a novelette step onto the carpet of flowers.  

Lily bit her lip.  She wouldn't have admitted it for the world, but she was just the slightest fragment nervous.  The hand that clasped the stems of five lilies was shaking, hardly noticeably, but still, it was shaking.  Her eyes were roving everywhere, trying to find some hint of confidence, some part of her world she knew she could count on, even if everything else changed.

Eva, in her pale, rose-gold gown, had already started down the aisle, and Lily knew she'd have to follow.

She swallowed.  This was ridiculous—this was what she had _dreamed_ of for months—the happiness she had hoped for all her life was waiting at the end of the aisle.  The music floated down past her ears, and she let her eyelashes fall onto her cheeks.

Next to her, Severus slipped his arm underneath hers.  Immediately, a large weight fell from her heart and shoulders; a small smile on her face, she stepped onto the flower-covered grass.

James couldn't repress a grin.  He couldn't help thinking that she was one of the most beautiful creations he had ever been privileged to see, imagine, or hear about, and she was marrying him!  Think of it—the one thing he felt to be the most beyond his grasp was soon to be his…

A horrid thought struck him, just as thoughts do when one is nervous.  He leaned over to Sirius.

"What if she gets cold feet?" he whispered.

"There's the nearest cliff," Sirius grinned.

James rolled his eyes, then fastened them on the figure all in white and gold, moving sedately towards him.  He hadn't even a glance for the man that was holding her arm, the one he hadn't at all wanted to attend the wedding; he forgot about everything else except the girl, dressed magnificently as an ancient queen, but herself radiant and glowing as if she had been born the day before.


	68. A wedding and Egypt

Finally, after what seemed like the mile-long walk to her bridegroom, she took his arm, smiling up at him.  It was almost unbelievable that she was marrying him; he, one of the most desirable men at Hogwarts, and he had seen something in her that she herself was blinded to.  

Mr. Potter was conducting the ceremony.  He spoke; said something—many things, but Lily didn't hear him, she was too caught up in the breeze that riffled the treetops and her dress and hair, then flew out onto the oceans; meanwhile the sense of the steady arm that she clasped.

Then, her eyes turned to her almost-father, and she caught his closing words.  She recognized a few of them; they were from an Apache marriage ceremony she had stumbled upon once.

"Bless you with hope enough to keep the dawn in your love,  
and fear enough to keep you holding hands in the dark.  
Unity enough to keep your roots entwined,  
and separation enough to keep you reaching out for each other.  
Harmony enough to keep romance in your song,  
and discord enough to keep you tuning your love.

Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be shelter for the other.  
Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth for the other.  
Now there is no more loneliness.  
Now you are two persons, but there is only one life before you.  
May your days together be good and long upon the earth.  Amen."

Lily felt James tighten his grip on her hand, and her smile grew, if possible, even more sincere than it had been before.  He stopped facing his father; he turned towards Lily, putting his hand out towards one of his father's outstretched ones and slipping another ring onto her finger.  This one was also in white-gold, with a black pearl as a center and one smaller, grey one on either side; their initials were carved into the gold band.  Her face softened as she picked up James' ring from his father's other hand; it was also white-gold, and their full names ran around the band instead of the pearls.  Taking his hand in hers, she slid it onto his finger gently.  

"I now pronounce you man and wife," Mr. Potter said solemnly.  "You may now kiss the bride."

Lily wasn't nervous anymore; she was simply radiantly acceptive of everything, and as James leaned down and kissed her lightly, she couldn't hear their friends clapping, couldn't see anything, and felt nothing but his arms around her.  

When they broke apart, it was as if someone had turned the volume up so high it was almost deafening as Lily threw her few flowers into the group.  Eva, wrestling Lora aside, caught them before she broke her fall on Frank Longbottom, who in his turn fell to the ground, breaking the ice like a pack of dominoes.  

Their friends stormed them with hugs and tears, laughter and good wishes.  Eva had been the first to break from her position and swamp her friend with a breath-choking embrace.

"Lily—oh, Lily!  It was beautiful, it was lovely, it was magnificent—I want you to plan my wedding and provide my husband!"

Lily laughed as James tightened his grip around her waist.  "Thanks, Eva—for everything, I'm guessing."

Lora wrestled her way through, flinging herself first around James' neck and then around Lily's.  "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!" she shrieked through large grins.  "It was beautiful!  I cried!" she gasped, pointing to her red-rimmed eyes.  "I cried, you hear me!  It takes a lot to make me cry!  I cried!"

Remus elbowed her in the side.  "Lora, dear, you're making no sense—Mr. Potter, congratulations!"  He hugged his friend, then turned to Lily, hand outstretched mock-formally.  "Mrs. Potter, what a pleasure."

"I like that," James grinned.  "Lily Potter.  It sounds nice!"

James' parents were the next to come up to them; in floods of tears, Mrs. Potter hugged and kissed both of them, smiling widely.

"I couldn't have dreamed of a more perfect ceremony—I _know_ you two'll be happy…"

Lily was engulfed in Mr. Potter's strong hug as he whispered in her ear.

"You're the girl I always hoped he'd find, and I hope he lives up to you."

Lily's eyes were starting to turn wet.  "Thank you—_thank you_…"

Sirius was talking animatedly with James, and at the sight of two faces, Lily slipped her hand out of his arm and stepped towards her friends.

"Lily," Severus smiled.  "It was marvelous."

Lucius hugged her.  "You'll be happy with him—even if he _is_ a Gryffindor that beat us at winning the thousandth Quidditch Cup!"

Lily tossed her head.  "You're just jealous of his flying, aren't you?" she laughed.

"Jealous?" Severus asked.  "Not in the least.  Do I get a hug, though?"

She smiled as she flung her arms around his neck.  "'Course you do."

"Lily!" James called.  "Padfoot didn't get his hug!"

Lily let go of Severus.  "Thanks—for walking me down the aisle.  I wouldn't have rather had my father do it."  Whirling around, she trailed her way through her friends before clasping her hands together around Sirius' neck.

Severus stared after her.  "Why does Potter always get everything?"

"Huh?" Lucius asked.  He was alone; Serena hadn't attended the wedding.

"Nothing," Severus mumbled.  "Nothing, that's all."

"If you say so," Lucius said skeptically.  

Lily couldn't remember a day that she had enjoyed more. It was all she had ever dreamed of in a wedding day--all she'd ever hoped she could experience. The island was a haven of glory for her; the white sand, coral sky, cerulean waves, and the draping, elegant trees with the thickets of flowers huddling at their roots. The sun was setting, throwing a golden coverlet over the clouds and a scarlet tone onto the sky, and her white dress and golden jewelry were throwing off cornsilk and red glints softly.   
Mrs. Potter let a hand fall on her shoulder. "Lily, dear, are you all right?"   
"Yes," Lily murmured. "I'm fine--better than I've ever been." She turned to the lady. "Can I call you Mum?"   
Her mother-in-law's lips parted slightly, and she reached for her new daughter, hugging her tightly.   
"I won't ever be able to replace your mother, but I'll do my best."   
Lily leaned her head on her new mother's shoulder, a tear running down her cheek. "Thank you--thank you. I--I--well, for everything."   
James fought his way through Peter, Lora, and Remus to Lily and his mother. Putting an arm around both of them, he looked slightly concerned. "What's wrong?"   
"Nothing," Lily smiled, wiping a tear away from her eye.   
"That, Mrs. Potter," James grinned, "is an outright lie."   
"It is, come to that," Lily agreed vaguely.   
James frowned, but didn't pursue the subject. Instead, he took her hand in his, looking at her new ring.   
"You know, I've got no idea on where we're going for our honeymoon."   
Mrs. Potter smiled at him. "James, I'm letting you two have the galleon--I know Lily loved the trip here, so you'll travel in that. Everything else you'll find out."   
James mock-frowned. "What's the catch?"   
Lily elbowed him in the stomach. "Must you always be so suspicious?"   
"I must," James grinned. "Around you, my mother, Sirius, Malfoy, and Snape, I must."   
What at usual Muggle weddings would have been termed a reception was held both on the top deck of the ship and on the shore. The boys, Severus and Lucius included, had been roped into setting up; they had spent at least five minutes engaging in the War of the Flying Table Legs, which was quenched speedily by Lora's Attack of the Tablecloths. They were ordered to repair everything in moments, however, and no lasting damage was done.   
When Lily, her arm in her husband's, stepped onto the sands, her eyes glowed. The splinters that had adorned the sands and waves had been rearranged into a long, teakwood table covered with a white tablecloth that had a golden one draped over it. The golden plates from the ship had been brought out; linen napkins embroidered in gold thread were stacked at one end of the table, several tureens and pitchers filled with things that smelled irresistible had been placed between large platters filled with food like chocolate German coffee cake slices and almond pie slivers. Flares of fire: torches and candles, lit up the table with a golden light, besides shining into the water with an elegant luster.   
Lily moved about as the happiest girl in the world that night; James couldn't help thinking, as he stole glances at her, that he had married the loveliest girl in the world. There wasn't anyone he knew with the charm she flung carelessly around her, the eyes with the otherworldly glow, or the ease with which she could switch from one role to another. This evening, when he had watched her tip a crystal glass to her lips while listening intently to something his father was telling her, a vivid image of an ancient queen conferring with an ally...   
He shook his head. "This is ridiculous," he muttered to Sirius. "I'm married to her and I can't keep from looking over at her and thinking that she's awfully pretty and I'd like to get to know her."   
Sirius nodded. "That is ridiculous."   
"You're not supposed to agree with me!"   
"Whoops," Sirius observed. "My mistake."   
Once, during the evening, a flitting thought dragged at Lily's mind. It was Tom she was thinking about--to imagine that he could have had all of this happiness, the dreamlike bliss...that was shoved brutally away by both his own craving for power and the Ministry wizards. Of course, in his eyes it would never be by _both _things. It was only the Ministry that had killed Litharelen, not his own madness for control and immortality.  
However, Lily pushed those thoughts out of her head; what had happened had happened; nothing could be done about it, and it wasn't going to be allowed to ruin her wedding night.   
Their friends Apparated or used the Floo network to get back to their respective homes around one in the morning, when the candles started to flicker tiredly and the platters were almost cleaned off completely. Mr. and Mrs. Potter, after removing all traces of anything from the shore with several flicks of their wands, called the young couple over to them, laughing.   
"Have fun," Mrs. Potter admonished.   
"And don't get arrested," James' father added sternly, looking sideways at his son.   
"Make sure you bring me back something from everywhere you visit!" Eva threw in before she Apparated.   
"Don't kill anyone." Mr. Potter was ticking things off on his fingers.   
"Including yourselves," his wife winked.   
"Do not spend over half of our estate."   
"But if it's to bring me back an albino tiger, go right ahead."   
"Don't sink the ship," James' father sighed.   
"And don't ruin the largest golden pitcher. I like that one," Mrs. Potter grinned. She pulled both of them into a tight hug. When she pulled away, she blinked hurriedly.   
"That's that. I don't have to bother to tell you to enjoy yourselves."   
"No," James agreed. "You don't."   
He shook hands with his father, who was smiling broadly at the two of them, and patted his mother consolingly on the back.   
"Don't worry, Mum...we'll be gone long enough for you to recover from the nervous shocks I've given you over the years."   
"Yes," Lily quipped, "and then you'll have even more fun wrecking the poor lady's improved health."   
Mrs. Potter clenched her hands into fists. "I will _not _cry," she practically howled. "Go on, you two. Board ship."  
James let a mischievous smile play across his features, but Lily didn't catch it. She hardly had time, anyway; seconds later, she was whisked into the air, swung around twice, and being carried across the gangway to the deck, the long, white train cascading behind her.   
He finally let her down; they were both next to the railing. James waved wildly to his parents.   
"Goodbye! Goodbye! Make sure you survive without me!"   
Lily pulled his arm down firmly, placing it around her waist. "James, you're making a dreadful scene."   
He grinned at her. "Well?"   
She shrugged, smiling, shaking her head. "You're entitled to make your scene, I suppose. They're your parents, after all..."   
There was a slight rocking movement, and the ship started to drift through the water. James frowned.   
"Where're we going?"   
"That's my secret." Lily tossed her head.   
James kissed her. "Sometimes I wonder if it's safe, allowing you to have this many secrets!"   
Later that night, Lily was sitting on the bed in their room, in a long, golden, flowing nightgown and looking through a book of ancient languages when James fell onto the pillows next to her.   
"What's that?"   
She closed the book swiftly and pushed it underneath the mattress. "Never mind."   
"If you say so," he gave in. "So...did you enjoy yourself? Today, I mean."   
A haunted smile flitted across Lily's face. "Of course--I've never liked anything as much as I did our wedding."   
James grinned. "That was a most correct response." He ran his hand through her hair, letting his arm slip around her shoulders.   
Lily woke up around seven the next morning; the sun streaming into the window had woken her up. Blinking several times, she shook her head wildly; her hair fell around her shoulders, hanging to her waist and draping onto the sheets. Swiftly, she looked towards the window. The sun had barely risen; several clouds were still tinted a primrose pink, but otherwise they were golden, with a bright coral blue sky. Lily smiled.   
She looked down next to her; James was still half-asleep. Wrapping her arms around her knees and resting her head on them, she nudged him in the side with her foot.   
"Wake up!" she whispered.   
Strangely, her words penetrated his mind, and he opened his eyes to the blast of sunlight.   
"Ouch!"   
Sitting up, he rubbed his eyes, blinking wildly. "Ow!"   
"That all you can say?" Lily asked. "It's a beautiful morning."   
"Yeah..." James mumbled. "I noticed." He finally got used to the bright yellow beams and looked over at Lily. "Morning."   
"Good morning," she replied cheerfully and a tiny bit wistfully. "It certainly is."   
He smiled at her, putting an arm around her shoulders. "I'm having a hard time believing you won't evaporate any second now."   
Lily leaned against him, sighing. "I honestly hope I won't." She gazed at the shadows of the entwined rings set in the large window; they were falling on the wall opposite her. "However, I think that with all the times I've been poking myself with forks at dinner and tripping over table legs in broad day- and candlelight, I'm pretty sure I won't."   
James kissed the top of her head. "Trust you to ruin the mood."   
She nodded. "I'll ruin it even further by asking you if you want something to eat."   
"You know me too well. I'm supposing there's going to be food in the dining room."   
Lily laughed as she swung her feet out of bed. "I'm guessing you're right." She quickly rearranged the golden nightgown; then slipped her arms into an indigo dressing gown, tying the sash loosely. "I'm ready."   
"You're not getting dressed?" He raised his eyebrows.   
"I fail to see the need of that. We're the only two people on here."   
"True," James agreed sleepily. "In that case, I'll bring it in here. Hang on." Quickly, after putting on his own bathrobe, he left the room, closing the door quietly. Lily let herself fall back onto the bed, leaning against the footboard and gazing pensively into the clouds outside the window.   
James was back in seconds; he was balancing a pot of coffee and two cups in one hand and a plate of crumpets, eggs, and pancakes in the other. Sitting down next to her, he handed her the plate and a white cup with a gold rim.   
"Coffee, my lady?"   
Lily smiled. "How much sugar did you put into there."   
"Lots," he stated simply, pouring some of the searing hot liquid into her cup. "Quite a lot of lots."   
She tipped the cup to her lips, taking a swallow. "Yes," Lily agreed, "you did put lots in there."   
"I didn't overdo it, did I?" he asked concernedly, cupping his hand around hers. "Want me to get some more?"   
"No," she giggled. "You're acting just like a devoted servant."   
He broke a crumpet into pieces for her and handed her the plate. "I'm enjoying it, too. After all that time I thought I'd only see you at Snape's wedding or something-well, I'm definitely counting the many blessings I've got."   
"You thought," Lily eyed him fixedly, "that I'd marry _Severus?_"   
"Er-well, he _has _liked you for some time, and...er...well..." James looked embarrassed. "I was assuming the worst."   
"Don't be such a pessimist," Lily said firmly, kissing him. "Enjoy yourself. I'm letting you take me places I intend to get pleasure from, and you might as well like them, too."  
"Oh," James laughed, "so if I don't have your taste, I won't enjoy our honeymoon?"   
Lily set her cup down on a table next to the bed. "No," she said thoughtfully, "I think you'll like where I'm taking you. Or, rather, where I'm letting you take me."   
"Sure," James beamed at her. "The last thing I'm doing is questioning you-look how our wedding turned out!"   
"Thank you," Lily smiled. "That gives me lots of faith in me."   
Several hours later-the galleon was magically skimming the waves immensely quickly, at the speed almost of an airplane, though when they stepped onto the deck, the wind only blew sedately through their hair-their ship entered the mouth of the Mediterranean, and what seemed like moments after that, their ship was docking in a city-Alexandria, at the mouth of the Nile in Egypt.   
Lily was running her hands calmly through a chest of Galleons stored behind the paneling in their bedroom-James knew the ship's plans well, and he had unearthed that store for her. She was kneeling in front of the chest, counting out coins.   
James sat down next to her. "What're you doing?"   
"Well, we'll need money, won't we?" she smiled. "I can go in and out of Madam Malkin's or Gladrags Wizardwear without having to spend thousands of Galleons, but ancient Egyptian markets are something else."  
"Wait." James frowned. "An _ancient _Egyptian market?"  
"I've got a thing for ancient Egypt, I know," she admitted. "But I've read about the portal several times, and this shouldn't cost too much."   
James raised her to her feet. "What are you planning to do?"   
She placed a finger on the cleft above his mouth. "Ssh. Trust Lily. Lily knows best."   
And so, a quarter of an hour later, they stepped off of the gangplank into the bustling mass of Alexandria.   
Lily steered both of them dexterously through the crowds; it was almost as if she had been here before, James mused. However, he didn't have much time to, for in merely moments, they were inside a rather shabby-looking building, with a short, dark, fat man adjusting pictures of an oasis on the walls. He looked up as they entered; he bowed deeply.   
"What may I do for my lord and lady?"   
In spite of herself, Lily had to smile. "Fifty-seven B.C., please."   
"I should be enchanted," the man smiled. "Forty Galleons is the price."   
James stepped forward, nonchalantly pulling out a handful of gold. Carelessly counting out several pieces of it, he poured them into the man's hands, somewhat understanding what this place was.   
The apparent owner bowed again as he gestured to a crude fireplace behind his desk. "Step inside. It will take you where you want to go."   
James felt Lily take a deep breath as she held his arm even more tightly than before. Both of them setting a foot inside the fireplace, they were conscious of dust, of detritus flying around them in a maelstrom of sand, until it stopped gently, and the couple shook their heads almost in unison, trying to get the dizzy feeling out of their heads.   
Lily smiled; they were still inside the same, dusky shop, but outside, the atmosphere, what they could see of it through the slanted door, had changed. It had more light; the noises had everything farthest from car motors, and a bell could be heard tinkling through the clamor. James looked down at Lily, who hugged him.   
"It worked! I was almost scared this was a hoax; but come on," she smiled, twirling around before kissing him. "There's an agora out there-and we've got all the time in the world!"  
The first place James spotted was a stand sporting all kinds of chitons, from silk to coarse sackcloth for the slaves of a household. He pulled on Lily's girdle.   
"Look, over there!"   
She smiled at him. "Just what I was looking for. We don't really blend in with what we're wearing, do we?"  
"Not remotely," he agreed. It was true, too. No one else was wearing red or golden wizarding robes, and James, for one, was starting to want to tear the sleeves off of his; it was getting extremely hot.   
Lily smiled enchantingly at the owner of the stand, fingering a linen blue chiton, a gown that fastened at both shoulders and hung to the ground from there; some had slits in the sides. The owner nodded his head deeply at them.   
She pulled an emerald green silk chiton off of the counter, along with a blue sapphire silk one she held behind that. Holding both of them against her body, she turned to face James.   
"What do you think?"   
"Elegant," he nodded. "The green looks good on you."   
She blushed, letting her hands run over several other goods. Picking up a white piece of linen, she folded it around his waist.   
"You could do that," she appraised. "A red cloak over one shoulder, too. I saw one over there." She gestured to the cloaks draped over one end of the counter.   
He frowned. "A _cloak?_"  
"Don't be silly, you won't be hot," she beamed as she fingered the blue garment she had picked out for herself; she was pleased to note that the slit was in back of the gown, whereas the ones on the emerald green one came up to her waist on both sides. The blue gown would show very nicely, she ruminated, letting her teeth flash in the Egyptian sun.   
"We'll take these four," Lily told the owner, pointing to her two selections and the ones she had made for James. Her husband stared at her as the owner gave a total.   
"How'd he understand you?" he almost gaped.   
Lily shrugged. "It's got something to do with the portal. What we speak he can understand. Which means 'ssh' for right now."   
James saw the wisdom in that, but as soon as he had handed Lily a few talents, the currency of that time--they had obviously been magically exchanged, too, in their journey--he ducked out of sight for a moment. By the time Lily had been offered a place to change out of the golden robes she was wearing into the chitons, he had returned with a pair of sandals for both of them, which he handed to Lily as soon as she emerged.   
"Your slippers won't do well in this sand. Here."   
She smiled as she slid her feet into them. "Thank you, darling."   
"Darling?" He raised his eyebrows. "I can get used to that!"   
She laughed merrily, and as soon as he had emerged, with the scarlet cape flowing over one shoulder and the white cloth around his waist, she took his arm, leaning against his shoulder.   
"If I were an Egyptian noblewoman out in the marketplace, I'd be ravishingly jealous of me."   
James ruffled her hair. "We'd better get you some jewelry, then, so I can have every single man in this marketplace wanting to strangle me."   
"What?"   
"You're a very pretty girl, and I'm hoping that these people understand the sacredness of marriage vows."   
Lily blushed again, and when she raised her eyes, they landed on a small, dark shop; the door was hanging open, the walls were of a sandy clay, and there was a little girl with dark hair playing on the doorstep.   
"Look! I think it's a shop for oils and incense!" Ignoring his laughter, she pulled him inside the shop; exiting with fragrant candles, at least twenty sticks of incense each, and a reed basket thrown in as part of the deal, which was hanging on Lily's arm.   
James mock-sighed as he maneuvered his way through a group of chattering, plump, middle-aged women, all with straight noses and children holding onto their legs. "I've a fear that Father's estate is going to end up being burned to the ground with all of these candles and things."   
"Nonsense," Lily smiled. "I've got too much sense to let that happen."   
"Beautiful, yes," James grinned, "humble, no."   
"You should talk!" Lily accused. "Who was the one that--"   
"Okay, okay, I'll stop!" he intervened. "I'll stop."   
"Very good. Oh!" she pointed. "Jewelry!"   
James raised his eyebrows so high they were hidden by his mass of untidy hair. "I've got a feeling I'll be spending a while at this stand."   
"Oh, you will!" she agreed heartily. "_Look_ at that bracelet with the jade eyes!"  
James grinned, running his hand over a pair of golden earrings. "These have tigers-eye opal stones, besides the dangly stuff." He held one up to her ear. "I like that one on you."   
Lily laughed and pointed over his shoulder. "There's an anklet--it has pearls in it! _And _little bells!"   
"Bells?" James asked skeptically. "I never thought you had a thing for _bells_."  
"You're right," Lily realized out loud. "I don't, do I?" She shrugged. "I'm supposing it's simply the glory of jewels."   
"I suppose so, too. Look at that arm-ring over there--it's almost exactly like the one you wore for our wedding, isn't it?"   
"It is," Lily agreed. "Except this one is authentic, it twines around one's arm much more, it's got real emeralds for eyes, and it's lots more expensive."   
"Oh, I don't care!" James exclaimed. "Put it on your arm; I'm buying it for you!"   
As he threw the money down on the table, she laughed loudly; he swung her up and around into the air, and her long hair flew into his face.   
"I'm enjoying this more than you, I think. I'm just about bursting with pride, thinking about how envious that group of men that just passed us is. They actually glared at me; one of them pointed to his sword. I don't think he likes me much," James grinned.   
"That reminds me," Lily grinned, "we'd better look for a stand that sells swords. I want to get you one. I might be able to buy a small dagger, but I want you to have a sword. It would make you look so much like a heroic, handsome, brave soldier..." She sighed dreamily.   
James smelled something; he sniffed the air loudly.   
"Lily, I smell fresh bread and garlic. As soon as you're finished here, I'm kidnapping you and taking you to that vendor's across the way from here."   
For an answer, Lily picked up a necklace.   
"_Look!_ Real lapis beads, and with pearls interwoven in them, too!"

Around three in the afternoon, the basket hanging from Lily's arm not only held incense, candles, and their wizarding clothing, but an anklet, several golden bracelets, and a chain with paste jewels that passed over Lily's forehead, letting a jade piece dangle at the end of a chain just between her eyes.  Lily only wore a pair of earrings, and James couldn't have been prouder of her as they sat cross-legged on the edge of a dust-streaked, large basin in the centre of the agora; they had spent a few coins on two loaves of bread and something Lily was extremely hesitant to touch at first; it was fried dormouse.  James had only bought it because he'd smelled something good, and when he'd heard the man at the stands say as he handed them their meal, "Enjoy the pests!" he was confused till a lady standing next to him explained, tossing her head affectedly.

"He means dormouse."

"Dormouse?" James had asked, somewhat disgusted.

The lady pointed to what was in his hand.  "Yes.  Fried dormouse."


	69. From Alexandria to the Hanging Gardens o...

James had seen Lily slip over next to him out of the corner of his eye, so he thanked the lady and withdrew, handing Lily a loaf of bread.

"Guten Appetit."

Lily wrinkled her nose.  "What was she saying to you?"

"Oh, are you jealous?"

"Of course I'm jealous," Lily smiled.  "She was very pretty."  Then her expression changed.  "You were planning to feed me _fried dormouse?"_

James' hopeful grin dropped.  "I didn't know what it was!"

"Fried dormouse," Lily repeated, disgusted.  "You eat it, I'll eat it.  You'd better do it with a straight face, too."

James sighed.  "I didn't do anything!"

Lily just looked at him.

"Okay, okay.  I'll eat."  He pulled one loaf out of his grasp and handed it to her, then looked at his own apprehensively.  "At least it smells good."

"Think of all the diseases it's carrying," Lily grinned innocently.  "Mice carry lots of them, you know."  
"I know," James grimaced.  "That's why I like asps so much.  Well, here goes."

He pushed a corner of it into his mouth gingerly, and he almost smiled at Lily, though it was rather hard to do so with a lump of bread poking out of his lips.  "Tmmh immh."

"Huh?"

James swallowed and grinned.  "Try it."

Lily sighed, hesitated a bit, then finally bit off of her own lunch.  She swallowed gingerly.

"Well?" James grinned.

"Not bad," Lily had to admit.  "In fact, quite good!"

"It is, isn't it?" the lady from beforehand butted in.  Lily had time to notice that she had dark brown skin and long, black hair; her clothes were those of a middle-class merchant's daughter.

"Children come here in the mornings," the lady informed him.  'Him', because she was almost fixedly ignoring Lily.

Lily almost snorted with impatience.  Taking James' arm, she pulled him off of the fountain, letting several crumbled bits of incense land on the lady's white dress.  "James, my _husband, I fully intended to look for lodgings today."_

"Oh," James frowned.  "Okay—hang on—"

"Oh, I could help!" the lady gasped, catching up with them.  "My father knows someone that owns a building where the ambassadors may stay!  I am sure you would be welcomed there.  Come, let me lead you!"

"I don't think," Lily gritted her teeth, "that we are ambassadors."

Nothing did any good; she was swept around the edge of the bustling marketplace into a courtyard surrounded by two-story buildings, rimmed with tall columns.  The lady waved an oldish, plump man over.

"These are visitors to our country.  My father requests you make them welcome."

Twenty minutes later, Lily was sitting disconsolately on a rather hard bed in a room with only one window.  She was almost glaring at James. 

"What in the name of a cat's favorite litterbox made you run off with her!  I'm still tied to you, remember that!"

"I know that!" James sighed.  "Look, it wasn't as if I really had a choice.  I couldn't have left her standing, could I?"

Lily just looked at him.

"Okay, so maybe I could have.  But what do you want us to do now—jump out the window and slither down a bedsheet we've ripped into pieces or something?"

His bride smiled disconcertingly.  "You know, for a Quidditch player, you've got incredibly good ideas sometimes.  By the way, I passed a litter being carried by on the streets, and there was talk of someone from Rome appearing at the royal court.  It might be someone we know from our history books—won't that be exciting?"  Her eyes gleamed.

"Lily," James frowned, "we can't go in there, as I'm assuming this is going to be held in the palace."

"Oh, it is," Lily said nonchalantly.  "Of course it is.  I wouldn't settle for less."

Her husband groaned.  "At _least_ let me pick a way of disappearing from here that won't cause them to have to replace extremely expensive bedsheets.  Something more creative."

"Like whistling a flying monkey to the window that we could fly off on?" Lily scoffed.

"No.  We could say we're going to market or something.  And then we don't come back.  Our stuff's on our boat anyway—we only have the things we bought at the market in here.  And we can't leave here with all our possessions.  They'll know."

"I see.  You don't want to disappoint that girl, do you?  Be careful, or I'll seek out an incredibly handsome, lean, bronzed man who loves me dearly and run off with him.  I suggest we find a back way out."

There _was_ a back way out of the hotel-like building, and they made it out without getting seen, a feat that left them in high hilarity; Lily was laughing almost uncontrollably, leaning on James' arm.

"Won't she have a fit when she finds we're gone?  I expect she wanted to see you daily with the excuse of washing your sandals or something of that sort."

James grinned.  "Lay off, will you?"

He swerved around, his glance landing on one of the small, dirty shops.  "Lily, did you say something about getting me a sword?"

"Yes, why?" Lily asked.

"There's a nice place over there that doesn't look too scorpion-infested.  If we're going to that royal thing tonight—though heaven knows how—we'd better look our parts!"

"Scorpion-infested?" Lily eyed him warily.

He laughed and swung her into his arms swiftly.  "Well, you never know!"

"Why doesn't that comfort me?" she asked underneath her breath.

James pulled her into the sword-seller's shop, and he had to withstand several urges to strangle the man that was selling the swords as he caught the glances the pudgy man kept flashing at Lily, who didn't notice them at all.  Her mind was riveted on several sheaths and their weapons, and by the time James blatantly pointed out that Lily was, if not his wife, at least extremely close to him by draping both arms around her, she had decided that this shop wasn't worth anything.  Pulling James outside, she sighed.

"I haven't seen any daggers for ladies around here, and I desperately need one.  I've been pinched several times, _rudely_, in the streets."

"You have?"  James glanced down at a small, dirty child in disbelief.  "Want me to hire a litter?"  
"You know," Lily mused, "I wouldn't mind that."

A half hour later, both of them were sitting inside a litter rimmed with pale green silk curtains they had pulled back; so far above the streets, they could see much more of Alexandria.  The men carrying their litter set them down in a harbor; a ship was unloading its cargoes, and quite a few noblewomen could be seen looking at caskets of goods.  Two children were running around with pieces of silk flying out behind them, pretending they had wings.  

Lily approached a chest that had two Roman women kneeling in front of it; they were pulling out bottles of oil and uncorking them, sprinkling spices in the air, and looking at jars of potpourri.  Lily fingered a bottle of the balm of Gilead, then, making up her mind, handed the sailor in charge of the goods a few coins and placed the bottle carefully inside her chiton.  James moved off to stare at clothing and shields, and Lily slipped her arm through his, carefully sifting through daggers.  She smiled when she unearthed a slight golden slip of a knife, so small as to almost be mistaken for a coil of wire.  Pricking her finger with the end of it, she watched her finger release a drop of blood with satisfaction.

"I like this one."

James smiled at her.  "I thought you would.  It's just very sharp, that's all."

He leaned down next to her, whispering under the din of the ships in the harbor and the clattering of the women's voices.  "Why're you buying that, anyway?"  
"It's interesting," Lily shrugged.  "I'll have a relic.  Besides, it makes me feel awfully important."

She let James pay for it, then stood up; she had caught sight of a billowing, white sail.  "James!"

"What?"  He looked down at her apprehensively.

"Look—our ship's still there!  Still in the harbor!"  She pointed past the hull of a merchant galleon to the one they knew well.

"So it is!  Say, we'll board as soon as we finish buying here, and get ready for that party tonight there, all right?"  
Her smile gave him his answer, and as she bent down again, her eyes fell on another weapon.  Picking up something, she held it out to him.

She had selected an ivory sheath inlaid with gold hieroglyphs; the hilt of the sword was in the same design.  Lily smiled as she slipped the belt around his waist and fastened it.

"It says, 'Blessed be thou, protected by Isis.'  I like it."  Lily kissed his cheek.  "You look very elegant."

He grinned.  "I suppose I'm buying this one, then, am I?"

"Of course!"

They paid around eleven Galleons in Egyptian talents, and then a few more on a cloak-pin for James.  Light-hearted, the couple boarded their ship, laughing and talking.

The sun set quickly, and by the time they were ready, it was dusk outside.  Lily took the arm offered her by her husband.  He was in the white and red they had bought earlier that evening, but the cloak-pin was ivory with a ruby; it was shaped like a sword, with the stone in the hilt.  The white cloth was wrapped like a Roman toga, and his own sword was fastening it at the waist with the leather belt.

Lily had taken all the care in the world to use hardly any of the balm of Gilead, an oil extremely rare even in those days, and she wore the emerald chiton over the blue one still, though all the jewelry was fastened onto her arms, ankles, neck, and into her ears.  Her hair was swept into a coil in the back of her head, and the chain that passed around her forehead hung entrancingly almost in her eyes, outlined heavily in ocher, as the nobles of that period thought was beautiful to do.

They passed the palace guards with no trouble; they exhibited enough wealth and a carefree outlook so as to immediately be assumed nobles.  Lily was almost disappointed; she had practically hoped for a situation that would call for immediate, convincing lies she made up on the spot and flinging what charm she had onto the guards.  Still, she supposed, nothing could be like in storybooks, though her life did wonderfully resemble one.

The two stepped inside the castle walls and were face to face with a large, glittering, silken, elegant crowd; ladies were embracing each other, some men were talking in a corner, a few couples were laughing gracefully, and servants fluttered to and fro, bearing great trays and casks of wine.  James pulled lightly on Lily's arm.

"We're in with the rich crowd now!"

Lily laughed.  "I wish we'd been born here!"

Not unnoticed and not unobserved, the two moved from group to group, now sampling a leek soup, now trying to force wine down each other's throats.  The evening was magical, and the dancers in the centre of the room that some were watching added to the charm with their weaving and winding sashes of silk and the bright jewels they wore.  Theirs were paste, but the ones that the guests wore were real, as was the gold that cast shimmers all over the room.  The word for describing the gathering was 'rich', there was no other one for it.  The light; warm and yellow, the expensive silks, the cushions, the food, the gold, the jewels, the people.  

The dancers ceased their movements, and they were rewarded with a storm of applause as they were led away by several slaves.  The people resumed their conversations at three long banquet tables that were sagging with large platters of food and drink, and Lily and James slipped into seats near the middle of one table.  Lily's eyes roved over the gathering busily.

"What're you doing, Lil?"

"I want to see if I recognize anyone.  From pictures and sculptures, that is."

James shook his head.  "I don't think Caesar or Pompey came here in this year…it's a bit hopeless, since no one knows what they really looked like."

"No?"

Lily's odd expression made James look at her curiously; her green eyes were sparkling with an inner exultation, and her lips were almost unnoticeably curved in a triumphant, wondering, and awed smile.  James turned his head to look at where her eyes pointed.  He caught his breath.

At the head of the middle table a young girl sat, no more than twelve.  She was simply dressed in a white chiton, but around her neck hung a heavy golden collar, almost ridiculous on such a slight figure, but she carried herself wonderfully well, like a dancer.  She had Macedonian roots, true, but they only showed in the more pale than usual skin tone; it was a light tan instead of the darkened bronze that had enveloped the Egyptians.  Her hair was a dark brown, so dark it was almost black; fine and carefully combed, it hung past her shoulders and to the middle of her back.  Her eyes were a dark, regal, intense brown, but at the same time soft and sweet.  She wasn't a thin wisp of a child; one could tell she rode horses well and often. 

She spoke Aramic to one couple; as another man paid her a compliment in Hebrew, she responded in his tones, and passing to those like a musical instrument did from one string to another.  James' eyes widened in wonder.

He knew who she was, of course; there was only one girl she could be.  Cleopatra Philopater VII, still a princess of Egypt.  And she reminded him strongly of someone else—the nymph-like redhead next to him.  He didn't know how many languages she knew, but they were many; she was as domineering as the princess, and she was just as captivating, if not more.

Lily turned around to her husband.  "What's wrong?  You look—like you've seen a spirit."

"I haven't," he smiled.  "It-s just—Cleopatra—"

"She's amazing, isn't she?" Lily asked wistfully.  "One of the most I've ever known about…"

The guests had finished dinner by then, and the gathering rose to their feet, to resume what they had been doing before.  James was looking over his shoulder at a man wearing a dark red tunic, and when he turned back around, Lily was gone.

Her keen eyesight had caught the princess' figure leaving the banquet hall; she followed the girl outside into the gardens, where the princess sank to her knees in front of a fountain, putting her head in her arms and simply sitting there.

Without an inch of hesitation, Lily moved forward, placing a hand on Cleopatra's shoulder.  The girl flinched and spun around, eyes wide.

"Oh!  I apologize for leaving—I—"

Lily shook her head, and the princess stopped.

"Who are you?"

Sitting down next to her, Lily took in the whole of the girl's face with her gaze.  "I'm nobody.  I'll be nobody in two weeks, that is."

Cleopatra frowned.  "I don't understand."

"You're not meant to.  It's my secret."

They were five years apart, but they felt as if they knew each other dearly; that they had since childhood.  Neither of them had even dreamed of the other before, and they weren't in the faintest sense related, yet they _knew_ each other.

"Where are you from?"

"From afar," Lily said wistfully.  "I'm only here for a short time, but Alexandria is a magical city."

A flush of pride entered the princess' cheeks as she dropped her head.  "It is, isn't it?"

"I've never seen a city like it," Lily replied seriously.  Then her face relaxed into a smile; she had seen a shadow she knew all too well out of the corner of her eye.

"I have to leave—but I'll remember you."

Cleopatra took Lily's hand in her own.  "I admire you.  I do know I have only seen you for minutes, but you are so full of life, so free.  I wish you joy."

Leaning forward, she embraced the seventeen-year-old quickly, then nodded in farewell as the redhead flitted backwards, merging with the shadows.

Lily was in awe.  The girl she had met couldn't be mistaken for a queen no matter what happened to her, and for a fleeting instant, tears sprang to her eyes at the thought of the queen's suicide.  They were dashed away, however, by the quick movement of a man that pulled her into the shadows.

"James?"

"We'd better leave now. They're getting too rowdy inside—it's the wine."

"Ye-es…" she replied softly.  "I only wish I could have known her."

"Known who?"

"Cleopatra," Lily replied.  "She's more fit for a queen than any other person I've met."

James sighed.  "I've never seen two people click the way you two did.  As if you'd known each other from the cradle.

Lily shrugged.  "We haven't; and you know that."

"Not really.  I just realized I don't know much about you at all.  All I know I've found out in the past two weeks or so.  You never really let me find out anything about you beforehand."

Lily brushed a tear from her cheek.  "I hate to think of her dying.  The world's going to lose so much…"

James hugged her.  "We all have to die sometime, and she made the most of her life.  And so are you, too, if I can have anything to do with it."

"I hate thinking of death," Lily said wistfully.  "I'm not afraid of it, not in the least, but it destroys so much, so much that this world could use.  Just think what we could have gained if—say, Shakespeare was still alive."

James put his hands firmly on her shoulders, turning her to face him.  "Don't think of that.  Don't ever say 'what if'.  What's happened has happened, and we can only do what we can.  True, in an idyllic world we'd have the greatest playwrights alive and there wouldn't be any hunger and everyone would be rich or at least well-off and millions of other things—but this isn't a utopia.  We're stuck with what we've got, and it's not as bad as it could be."

Sighing, Lily leaned against him.  "I know.  I know.  I'll stop."  She wiped away another tear.

They were walking down the relatively quiet streets; music from the festivities still came to their ears, but it was muted, and their sandals clacked quietly against the cobblestoned harbor where their ship was anchored.

Lily hadn't eaten much that evening, but she wasn't hungry; nor was she tired.  Late that night she remained awake, musing, wondering, until around two in the morning her head fell onto her pillow and her eyes closed.  She couldn't keep her mind away from the twelve-year-old princess, and now she knew why the history and legends of the girl had lived so long; she truly was a wonder of the ancient world.

They spent another two weeks in Egypt, swimming in Alexandria's harbor, buying presents for their friends at home, sailing down the Nile on a barge, riding around the Pyramids, and much more. Being so close to the Equator, the water in the Mediterranean was pleasantly warm, though still a cold relief from the sun, and there was hardly any seaweed that slashed at their legs. There was a small current, but not a dangerous one, and they spent hours sitting on the rocks with their legs in the water, talking about important and frivolous things, and sometimes silence reigned underneath the blazing sunlight.   
They spent at least fifty Galleons on presents for their friends and family; Lily picked out silk scarves with golden pins for Eva, Vanessa, Amanda, and Lora; for Frank Longbottom, Severus and Lucius she bought small golden knives in elaborate sheaths. Sirius, Remus, and Peter had beautiful, long cloaks that swept the ground and were trimmed with gold thread. James and she had collaborated on gifts for his mother and father; they were to be presented with the elegant, large necklaces that both men and women wore during those times.   
Lily had fixed her mind on seeing the seven wonders of the ancient world: the Pyramids, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes; and the lighthouse at Alexandria.   
They mounted the lighthouse their third day in Egypt; it stretched higher than any structure had done so far, and at the top of it was a mirror that reflected things up to fifty kilometers away and made them appear to be so close as to be within range of a waving hand. Inside, the building was thick with smoke from the fire that lit the tip of the lighthouse and it smelled of the sweat of the laborers that shoveled the fire constantly, but Lily hardly noticed any of that. They entered it at night and during the day; during the day was when the lighthouse used reflecting rays of the sun instead of the fire to mark its point.   
The trip down the Nile was nothing less than magical; the barge was small, only large enough to hold them, two slaves that were rowing, provisions, and a large divan for them underneath a pink silk awning. The water ripples softly under the oars the whole time; there was no rain and no sandstorm disturbed their view of the land. And the Pyramids were one of the most magnificent sights either of them had ever seen; beautiful and almost new, they stretched their points up to the clouds, piercing some of them. Palms were planted around them; the golden sand reflected lustily the shimmering rays of the sun.   
The couple took several rides through Egypt on a pair of glossy dark brown horses, perfectly matched, and neither of them had laughed so much in their life as when the wind whistled around their ears and the soft thuds of the horses' hooves could be heard on the sand. Neither of them had ever enjoyed themselves as much before, except perhaps at their wedding.   
The next place they traveled to was Athens, during the time when Sophocles was presenting three of his plays to be performed in a festival; the Oedipus triple, and they watched his crowning with the laurel wreath as he was paraded through the city afterwards. The Parthenon was bright and new in its splendor of white marble, and the golden statue of Athena inside reflected on the polished marble floor with such an exactness that the two felt as if they were stepping on mirrored glass. They saw the statue of Zeus at Olympia after a long, two hours' ride in a golden chariot; the Colossus of Rhodes they reached after a trip in their galleon; the beautiful Mediterranean island was an almost idyllic setting for the statue.

Rome was next; ancient Rome, before Julius Caesar met his death. They traveled to Herculaneum and to Pompeii, two of the loveliest seaside resorts Italy had to offer. They tasted foods like roasted songbirds and fresh olives; grapes straight from an Italian vineyard, diluted Roman wine; they passed down the Appian Way, a great street wide enough for three chariots to race each other, a hundred miles long, and lined with the crosses of crucified slaves that were taken prisoner after the defeat of the slave Spartacus and his army. The togas the Romans wore were crude linen; they were heavy and not nearly as regal as the Egyptian chitons.   
Lily had loved her stay at Herculaneum best; the sea breezes were ones she could have lived off of the rest of her life, and the house they visited had rooms that opened within yards of the shore; there was even one room into which the water reached when the tide ran up the beach. Inside Rome itself, the bath-houses were one main attraction; the hot water came from underground springs beneath the city.   
From there, they visited old Asia Minor, which was Turkey in their time, where they visited Caunos, a city next to the Mediterranean, bordering the shore. They bought beautifully woven carpets for themselves and their friends, elegant pairs of slippers that curled up at the toe, large, painted vases, bowls, plates, and cups, several carved chairs covered with fine fabrics, and pounds of fine, fragrant coffee. Lily had accidentally spilled a cup of the brew onto one of James' dark robes, and though the stain vanished, the smell persisted, and no amount of washing could remove it, which was a rather pleasant thing.   
The temple of Artemis and the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus were both in Turkey; the couple visited the Mausoleum first. A magnificent tomb to the King Mausollos of Caria, it was decorated with wonderfully elaborate statues and paintings. It resembled more a Greek temple than the Egyptian pyramids, though it was also a burial place for a king.   
The temple of Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt, among other things, served both as a marketplace and religious institution. Merchants, tourists, artisans, and kings paid homage to the temple and the goddess by sharing their profits with her; Lily saw gifts of gold and ivory statuettes of Artemis left there; earrings, bracelets, necklaces—all kinds of jewellery.

They were sleeping in a building surrounded by a small courtyard on the 21st of July, 356 B.C., when Lily was awakened suddenly by a faint warmth in the air. She sat up in bed, sniffed once, and flung the covers aside, shaking her husband.   
"James! Wake up! _Now!_"   
He rolled over. "What, in heaven's name? It's got to be three in the morning!"   
"Fire! Can't you smell it?"   
James sniffed. "Can't say that I do."   
"I do. Get up! Oh, please, you've got to!"   
A flicker of yellow fell onto the wall across from them, and both their eyes were riveted to the light. James threw the blanket aside.   
"I should learn to trust your instincts. Where is it?"   
Lily pointed to the west. "It's not too far. Hurry!"   
They quickly threw on some overclothing and rushed into the streets, carrying what they could. Lily had been right; the temple of Artemis was on fire, only a street away from their lodgings.   
"No! No—no—no! It can't be! Not—not--"   
James took her in his arms. "Lily, you can't help it!—ouf!"   
Someone had crashed into both of them, knocking them to the ground. The man that had bowled them over tried to run, but James caught his ankle, and he fell headlong.   
"Now, sir," James said sternly, "I at least demand an apology."   
The man turned his face to the light, and he let out a loud, harsh laugh. His hair was long and dark; tangled, it fell in his brown face and eyes; an Adam's apple was prominent on his throat.   
"An apology? _An apology?_ From me, the one men will remember for thousands of years? _Hah!_" He let out a sharp laugh and twisted free of James' grasp.   
Lily had regained her feet, and with a swift move, she tripped the man again as he tried to run. She knew she had remembered reading of something like this.   
"Your name will be remembered for centuries? You—you're not Herostratus, by any chance?"   
The shrill, repeated laugh provided her answer, and, her suspicions confirmed, her eyes narrowed.   
"You set fire to the temple, didn't you?"   
"My name will be set down in history! I shall be remembered for years!"   
The guards of the city came running to solve the commotion, and Herostratus was taken away without any further ado. Lily and James remained in the now dark streets, facing the ruins of the once gorgeous temple. Silent tears were running down Lily's cheeks.   
"I wish I hadn't seen this. It was—it was—it—"   
"Shh," James whispered, drawing her to him. "It's all right."   
They left the next morning; their lodgings hadn't caught on fire, and they still had everything they came to Asia Minor with and had purchased there. Lily only brightened up when James reminded her of their next choice of sights: the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Two days afterwards, when Lily mounted the deck in the morning, she found the ship docked in a harbor; during the night, they had arrived in Babylon.  A quick smile spread over her face as she flitted back below and practically yanked James out of bed.

"Wake up!  Wake up!  We're here, we're here, we're here!"

"Huh—er—whaaaa?"  James was still asleep.

"Wake _up_!"  He was lying curled up in a fetal position on the floor, and she was trying to yank the covers out of his tightly curled fists.  "Wake _up up up!"_

"Arrgh!"  James shook his head, pulling himself to a sitting position.  "Lily, it's seven fifteen!"

Satisfied, Lily jumped up and picked up her toothbrush, singing something from _Oklahoma.  "They couldn't pick a better time to start in life…"_

"Oh, yes, you could," James mumbled as he pulled a haphazard piece of clothing over his head.

"It ain't too early and it ain't too late," Lily continued, brushing her teeth.

"It _is_ too early," her husband complained, pulling a pair of sandals from underneath the bed.

"Startin' as a farmer with a brand-new wife," Lily continued, stopping to spit some toothpaste into a basin.

"Farmer?" James frowned, pulling out the other sandal.  "Someone's got some thinking to do."

"Soon be livin' in a brand new state!"  She finished rinsing her mouth out and ran wet fingers through her hair, trying to make it stay out of her face.  Smiling broadly, she emerged from the bathroom, throwing on a white chiton and sweeping her hair off of her neck.  Appraisingly, she glanced at James, who was wiping sleep out of his eyes while trying to fasten a cloak with a golden pin they'd bought in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt.  Fussing a bit, she took it out of his hands.

"James, you'll blind yourself—let me."  Her nimble fingers pinned his cloak over his right shoulder and she smoothed some of the folds out.  "There.  Ravishingly handsome."

He grinned as he wrapped his arms around her waist.  "That's always nice to hear.  Especially when I'd most like to be asleep."

Lily laughed.  "You sleep enough as it is.  Come on—the Hanging Gardens are waiting!"  She gazed around the room, frowning.  "Do you have any idea where my sketchbook is?"

"Not a clue," James sighed.  "It had better not be gone.  You've got the Artemis temple in there, and I don't think you can redo that.  Not unless you want to spend another fortune going even further back in time, and remember, you can't stop the guy that did it.  It'll happen no matter what."

"There it is," Lily remarked, kneeling underneath a small table and holding up a book of papyrus sheets triumphantly.   "Ready?"

James felt in a pocket of the cloak for his moneybag.  He touched it and grinned.  "Ready."

Arm in arm, they stepped off of the boat and wove their way through the noisy crowds and were swept through the castle gates, something both of them had become quite adept at.  A large, sandstone structure was visible from every point in the city, and it was there that they turned their feet.

They turned a corner, and there the Hanging Gardens were.  The building was a carved, tan, sandstone; it formed a quadrilateral from an aerial view.  From the dusty streets, the couple could see the terraced roofs and the balconies facing the sea.  The whole building was as tall as the city walls; they stretched 320 feet into the air, and if James hadn't pulled lightly on Lily's arm, she would have stayed outside all morning, staring at the building.

"Come on; we didn't come all this way just to stare at it, did we?"

"No," she agreed.  "It—it's impressive, that's all!"

"Wait till you see the inside," James grinned, pushing her forward.

There were two magnificently armed and dressed guards standing at attention at either side of the main doorway; their backs were to two elegant and tall columns that towered over them, with vines of hanging grapevines curling around them.  The guards stepped aside, saluted the couple, and let them enter the Hanging Gardens.

Lily bit her lip in excitement as she let her skirt drop to the floor; she had had it draped over her arm in a war against the dust.  Clasping James' arm a tiny bit more tightly, they moved forward, underneath the curved marble ceiling of the entrance.

Her eyes opened to the size of tealights when the sight of the gardens flew to her eyes.  Superbly and brilliantly elaborate, they were a sight to be waited for all one's life.  Stairways lined the walls; they led to the multiple lovely terraced roofs, and the banisters were slender. slim toothpicks, formed into twisting curves.  The hanging plants hung over terraces that were supported by stone columns.  Arched vaults were located on cubed fountains, the latter creating a humidity that kept the air wonderfully and pleasantly cool, as did the shade from the trees.  

The garden itself was built on several levels, closely planted, forming a replica of mountain greenery.  They were supported by an intricate structure of stone pillars, brick walls, and palm tree trunk beams that had been made watertight; they were laid over with mats of reed and bitumen and encrusted with two layers of baked mud brick.  The structure then was covered with a layer of lead.

The plants themselves that adorned the gardens had been imported from around the world; cedars, cypresses, myrtles, juniper evergreens, almond trees, date palms, olive trees, oaks, ash trees, firs, weeping willows and usual ones; pomegranate, plum, pear, quince, and fig trees.  Grapevines twined around trees and columns; deadly nightshade decorated the tree roots, and trellises were heavy with hanging white Clementine.  A uniform smell of wood, summer grass, water, fruits, and flowers hung heavy upon the air, and the brilliantly coloured flowers that dangled from the walls created a lush, tropical atmosphere.


	70. Don't use magic in ancient England

The couple spent the day walking through the fourteen vaulted rooms, the terraced roofs, and the underground crypts; Lily had picked samples of every lovely flower she could reach; her arms were filled with a bouquet near evening.  The fruit was spectacularly cultivated; they had never tasted such rich, ripe pomegranates or seen such lush, large pears and plums.  There were artificial fountains disguised as waterfalls throughout the gardens, and they could run their hands underneath the flow of water after letting the pomegranate juice run down their hands and chins.

Lily had affixed at least twenty sketches into her book; a waterfall, a willow draping behind an olive tree, the terraced roofs, a cluster of tropical flowers.  She hugged her drawings to her chest tightly; not for anything would she have parted with them.  On one sheet she even dropped, purposely, the juice of some of the fruits; she pressed several of the flowers and the leaves of trees and vines between the pages.

They had encountered only two groups of people during the day; two ladies with their expensive entourage and a noble and his wife, accompanied by what seemed like hordes of servants.  Every member of each parade had stared down their noses at the handsome, young couple as they meandered along the paths alone, but their eyes had to drop as they faced Lily's hard, determined, scornful gaze.  She wasn't standing for any nonsense from people that had been born rich, and she had no intention of concealing it.

"Lily," James whispered, after the lord and lady had passed by, "why'd you look at them like that?  They didn't do a thing to you."

"No," Lily agreed, "besides stare at me as if I were dung underneath an anthill and needed to be removed from sight quickly.  They don't like seeing people that don't flaunt their wealth."

James shrugged.  "True, but you don't have to go out of your way to make enemies, do you?"

"I didn't," Lily replied.  "They went out of their way to turn up their noses at us.  I was forcing their noses back down.  Don't tell me you liked looking at that lord's hairy nostrils!"

Her husband wrinkled his own nose.  "Say, is that the only thing you noticed?"

"It was rather hard to miss," Lily said dryly.  "He was advertising them freely."

James snorted loudly and had to mask it by a cough, as several of the lord's servants had looked at him curiously.

They dined in the house of an important political personage that evening; he was inviting anyone that was anyone to the dinner, and as Lily and James couldn't be mistaken for anything but wealthy, according to their clothing, the servants at the doors simply bowed low as they ushered the couple inside.  

The dinner was nothing elaborate, but it was expensive and quaint in its own way.  Oranges carved into the shapes of flowers lay on white silk napkins; roasted duck stuffed with all kinds of exotic herbs lay on a centre platter; the wine, though not of especially good quality, still was enough to impress James, who had grown up with nothing but quality.

They spent that week in Babylon; by the time they boarded their ship again, the fragments of the Hanging Gardens' plants were dried and hanging upside down in their room; the smell permeated the ship and made it reek, so James said, of 'the landmasses'.

Lily and James returned to Egypt in several days; their first motion was to seek out the small store they had emerged from when they traveled to the ancient times.  They found it easily; the owner was still adjusting picture frames on the walls, and he was the same as he had been two thousand years into the future; still dark, short, and fat.  The greasy smile as he greeted them was the same; as was the price of their journey, Lily noted.

She let James hand him the money; her mind was fixed on one thing.  She intended to visit one of her favorite historical periods as far as costuming went, and she anticipated overflowing trunks when they returned.

James nudged her in the back.  "Go on.  Where're we going?"

"Twelve hundred ninety-six, please," Lily said clearly, and she watched James frown a bit.  But before he could say anything, she had pulled him into the fireplace, and they were whirling off through future centuries.

They landed in the same store, though the dusty, homelike, comforting, sunny noise outside had diminished a bit; the streets were changed almost beyond recognition.  None of the lavish wealth penetrated the atmosphere, and Lily shook herself.

"I liked it better back then—let's get to our ship."

James nodded.  "Yes—it was friendlier, then."  He guided her through the jostling crowds outside, finally reaching a harbor, which smelled awfully of fish; no spices were being fingered and no silk felt in appreciation.

As soon as the two boarded the galleon, they set sail, not wanting to stay a minute longer in that country.  Egypt had reached its golden age during the pharaohs, and now the palace and temples were dilapidated with wear.  Lily leaned on the figurehead, eyes wide open, trying to block out the memories of the newer Alexandria by the rough wind hitting her forcibly in the face.

James walked up quietly behind her, putting an arm around her waist. He felt her tense and then relax, and he sighed.

"It's a shame, but we couldn't possibly do anything about that."

"No…" Lily whispered, "we couldn't, but I do wish it could have stayed at least somewhat like it was!"

"I do, too," he said, "but you saw it in its golden age, you bought beautiful what probably now is artifacts, and you met Cleopatra VII, which is more than I can say for anyone else I know."

Lily kissed him.  "You're magnificent at cheering people up."

They anchored in England two weeks later; they had stopped along a string of French resorts; at the lower French shores, Calais, and Forges.  From there they crossed the Channel into middle England, and they anchored on the western side of the country.

It was wooded, not heavily so, but pleasantly; the sun was mild, and the fishermen of the town they landed at had guided the couple to a man that sold horses as soon as they found out that the pair did not intend to stay in the seaside hamlet.

Lily chose their horses; she knew more about them than James did.  True, James had been taught to ride at five years, but she _knew_ horses; after all, Svordsja was one of the unparalleled of her kind.

She had run her palms over the backs of several steeds, but the ones she finally picked were two James wouldn't have looked twice at.  In a rather dingy stable at the back of the barn, the two had hay almost plastered to their coats; the stable hadn't been cleaned in ages, and their water had dirt floating inside it.  Lily wrinkled her nose as she glanced at it, then swerved towards the owner.

"This is a disgrace," she said bluntly, and the man's eyebrows went up in surprise and disgust.

"M'lydy!—_never would I—"_

"You obviously have," Lily commented ungraciously and rather rudely.  "A child could take better care of these creatures than you are.  They haven't been brushed in months.  How well do you treat them?"

"Ye-es, well—m'lydy—"  He was hee-hawing around the point, and it was then that James stepped in.

"My wife has asked you a question, and it is imperative for the continuation of your business that you give her a legitimate answer."

The owner gave in.  "I can't touch 'em, m'lydy.  They's vicious brutes, them is.  Kick us as soon as look at anyone.  They bites, too.  I wouldn't touch 'em, not fer the world, and I'd advise you and yer 'usband ter do the same."

Lily had her competitive spirit roused, and she shook off James' hand airily.  "Open the door; let me inside.  I'll handle them."

Alone, she stepped around a large pile of manure till she reached the horse nearest her.  Casting a glance around her, she found what she was looking for, and pulled a blanket off of a shelf.  Dipping it in the watering trough, she rubbed the blanked calmly and firmly over the horse's back; it didn't make a move towards attacking her, and she didn't expect it to.  Calmly, both of them stood inside the stable, and the two men outside stared.

"Lily—careful now.  You don't know what he can do."

"Yes, I do," Lily informed him.  "_She_ won't hurt me."

A short, meager brushing down of the animal revealed a beautiful black coat, dark, glossy, and elegant.  The other horse was a reddish-brown colour, and it was slightly taller than the other.  The owner told them that he had bought both of them from a lord that was leaving for France, but that the horses hadn't let anyone come near them; they bit, kicked, and generally were extremely violent.  The stable boys had resorted to throwing buckets of water through the window over the door into the water trough, and their hay was forked through the same opening.  Lily was the only one that had touched them for two and a half months.

Lily had commandeered the black horse, but then again, James hadn't expected anything different.  In two hours, the horses were groomed enough to please even Lily's eagle eye, and they were thundering across a moor; then crossed the forest by a slender path. 

The afternoon sun was just turning pink when the couple arrived at a larger town.  Dismounting, they tethered their steeds in front of a lodging-house a farmer had recommended to them, James handed a small boy a few pennies, ordering him to watch the horses, and the two entered the hostel.

There was a woman in her late twenties dusting shelves in the back of the small room the front door opened into; she whirled around, hitching up clean brown skirts and brushing wisps of braided, mousy-coloured hair behind her ears as soon as she heard them enter.

"And what may I be doing for you two?"

"We're looking for a room," James said evenly, "and Farmer Abbot told us to pay you a visit."

"Well, that's nice of him, I'm sure," the lady smiled, sitting down behind the desk and pulling out a ledger.  "Never thought he'd remember me, did I, though his sister did marry Madge's brother…where are we?—oh yes, here."  She looked up.  "You'll be wanting a larger room, then?"

"Larger?" James questioned.  He had instructed Lily to leave this to him, after all, she hadn't exactly been particularly nice to the stable manager.

"It holds a table and two chairs, it does," the lady explained.  "It's also got several nice pictures, and a big rug all over the floor.  I can give you a window or no."

"Window," Lily said determinedly.  "Definitely a window."

"I could give you two, miss," the lady said, posing her sentence as a question.  "Only two pence extra, it is, and we'll do your washing twice a week in the bargain."

James glanced at Lily, then put his hand into his robes.  "We'll take the two windows.  How much?"

He paid quickly, and they were taken up a smallish, though clean stairway into a room with a white linen bedspread on the bed, two pillows, an old dark red carpet, a simple table and two chairs with a white tablecloth and cushions.  The lady flung open the shutters, letting a cheerful smell of freshly dried grass float into the room.

She had put a pair of curtains over her arms when she stepped upstairs, and, taking the curtain rod down, hung them up nimbly.  They were plain linen, too, and freshly washed.

The lady stepped down from the chair and dusted her skirts off.  "I'll be leaving you to yourself, then.  Happens you'd like to do some shopping?  We've got nice dressmakers around here, and we're not too far from London.  Three miles, as happens.  They'd give you more fancy things, like.  But we're good local businesspeople, and no doubt my sister as lives in the town's square makes the best bread I've ever tasted, to be sure."  She finished smoothing her skirts.  "I'll be leaving you, then.  If you want anything, my nephew'll be within calling distance."  She scurried off after putting the room's key on the table, shutting the door behind her, and Lily sank down on the bed.

"Ouf!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" James asked.

"She's nice enough, I suppose.  And respectable…but a little [i]_too_[/i] overwhelming."

"Overwhelming is just the word.  Now, I'm supposing you want to see the dressmaker she talked about?"

"You suppose correctly.  Besides, that boy outside is theoretically still looking after our horses."

"Good Lord, so he is!"  James vaulted to his feet.  "I'll be back in a second!"  He was gone instantly, and Lily laughed as she locked the door behind her, following James.  

The boy was still standing outside, but he was tapping his foot impatiently and reaching his hand out for the bracelet Lily had left attached to the saddlehorn.  He snatched his hand away quickly when the two stepped outside, and with a sinister glare, James handed him another penny and waved him away.

"You shouldn't have left that bracelet there," he remonstrated as soon as Lily had swung herself upon her horse's back.  "It was bound to have been stolen."

"No," Lily shot back.  "It's one of those lovely Muggle objects that have been bewitched.  He'd have put his hand through it every time he touched it."

"Say, isn't that illegal?" James asked, frowning, as they turned their horses towards the town square.  "I mean, you can't bewitch Muggle things, can you?"

"Yes, you can," Lily laughed.  "This is the twelfth century; that law hasn't been made yet."

James rolled his eyes.  "You'll be burned at the stake, though."

"Yes," Lily nodded.  "I always wanted to know what the Flame Freezing Charm felt like, and I might have a chance at finding out."

"Mental," James mumbled, but aloud he said "Are we going up to London today or not?"

"Ye-es—no.  No.  We'll have more time tomorrow.  I'll just buy a girdle or something today—something to make these robes look—er—well, more twelfth-century than they do."

"Good idea," James nodded.

The clothing store was very simple; it specialized in linen clothing, and there were very few things in there besides cream and brown overdresses.  However, there were a few large sashes and girdles, and Lily bought a brown sash and woven belt to wrap around the golden robes she was wearing; James was outfitted with a leather belt that also held his sword.  Neither of them bothered with shoes; not may people did pay attention to shoes, and those they could buy in London.

There was not much to see in the square, besides a rabble of children washing their hands in a well and several ladies gossiping at market stands dotted everywhere.  People were packing up their things, though, and there wasn't much of the noisy clamor that usually prevailed at marketplaces.

They picked up a few loaves of bread, three potatoes, some spices, a clove of garlic, and several pieces of meat, and, turning around, they headed for what was temporarily 'home'.  

It was the easiest thing in the world to say that they weren't feeling up to eating anything after their journey to their hostess, and after she and her page-boy nephew had bustled away, Lily locked the door, pulled out her wand, and conjured up a cauldron, a bucked of clear, clean, cold water, and a portable fire which she placed underneath the cauldron, first making sure the table on which she placed the fire and cauldron was in no danger of burning.

Splashing most of the water into the cauldron, she pinched several spices from their wrappings and threw them on the surface and waited till they dispersed.  Nodding, she pointed her wand at the potatoes, which cut themselves up and dumped themselves into the cauldron along with some salt and pepper from her wand.  Slicing up the beef thinly, she spread the slices so that they floated thickly on top of the water and potatoes; squeezing the garlic clove was done in a matter of minutes, and she scraped the garlic into the makeshift pot.  

James grinned.  "That _does_ smell good."

"Thank you," she accepted.  "It should be.  Conjure up a barrier in front of the door for me, will you?  I don't want that lady asking questions."

He nodded and waved his wand, muttering a few words; a bubble-like glutinous matter burst from his wand and shaped itself around the door, moulding itself into the frame itself and disappearing.

"There.  Good enough?"

"I trust your magic."

"Lily," he groaned, "for _heaven's sake, don't say that word so loudly!  This isn't the twentieth century!"_

"Okay, okay.  Just so you'll stop nagging.  And I won't use it in London, unless we're in deep cow manure.  Satisfied?"

"I will be satisfied," James grinned, "when you let me taste what's in that cauldron.  I'm simply drooling over here."

Lily laughed.  "It'll be ready in a few minutes."

With a quick motion, he was standing behind her, his arms wrapped around her waist.  "I love you, Lil," he said in a singsong way of talking.

She smiled and leaned her head against his chest.  "I'm awfully happy that you do."

The next morning, they woke up early; for once, Lily wasn't the one pushing James out of bed.  He threw his clothes on at the same time she did, and by the time they were leaving the house and getting their horses out of the small stables belonging to the hostel's owner, the lady was just cleaning up downstairs with a mop and a broom.  She looked at them oddly as they went out, and Lily was aware of a hard stare piercing her back.

"Oh, well."  She shrugged it off.  "She can't hurt us very well, can she?  After all, we're wizards, and she's a common Muggle."

They dashed off to London, arriving there just as the shops were opening.  By asking around, they found a clothing-store usually patronized by the nobility, and they headed towards it.

The fashion then was, for women, a _bliaut, a dress fitted to the torso and loose from the waist down; the sleeves were long, usually down to the wearer's knees or farther, and there usually was a girdle fastened around the waist.  Men wore almost the same thing; though it was shorter, reaching only to the knees, and the sleeves weren't as long.  Both sexes wore cloaks, and many had hoods as well.  _

Lily pushed James over to the part of the store carrying men's clothing, and soon they had picked out an elegant dark red bliaut with golden embroidered trimmings, a pair of leather shoes, and a cream-coloured cloak with the same golden embroidery on the edges.  

He insisted on picking out Lily's apparel.  He'd let her pick out her shoes, since they all were the same style—leather with a pointed toe—but the gown she chose was going to be his affair for once.

James riffled through many of the pieces of clothing the owner carried, but finally he saw one he knew she'd look absolutely lovely in.  Dark green crushed velvet with the same golden embroidery as on his own, it had a golden belt and trim around the collar.  When she tried it on and modeled it in front of him, it fit her like a lady's glove, and he nodded.

"Don't even bother taking it off.  You're wearing that no matter what, and see if all the men in that square don't turn and look at you."

Lily blushed.  "James—"

"What—Ja-ames?  You _are_ beautiful, and I'm going to make it my mission in life to make you believe that," he said emphatically, slapping his money down on the counter for the shopkeeper to greedily stuff inside his clothing.

He led her out of the store proudly, completely aware of the admiring looks she was receiving from both men and women alike, and also disappointedly conscious of the fact that Lily wasn't noticing the stares.  He wished she would; it was almost ridiculous, the way she didn't realize anything extraordinary, exotic, or breath-taking about herself.  As he held out a hand for her to faux lean on as she mounted her horse, he heard something from his right that couldn't but be mistaken as a sniff.  Turning, he found himself faced with about five horses and their riders.

Lily, smiling at her husband, had allowed him to help her onto her horse, and just as James had swung himself onto his own, she had arranged herself to sit side-saddle, so that her train barely missed sweeping the ground.  As she looked up, though, a splash of color caught her eye, and she turned her head in the same direction James was looking.  

Closing her eyes lazily, she tilted her head to one side, weighing the nobles—for such they must be—before her.  

The lord and lady at the head of the spangled parade were the gaudiest of them all, and as a result the most important.  The lord was encompassed in an outfit of blue linen, with glass ornaments hanging from a golden belt.  He wore a sword, decked out with a sheath festooned in paste jewels, and a large chain that hung around his neck was bedecked with a large cross almost the size of his horse.  His hair, black and shining, was swept backwards and hung down his spine.  

The lady—most probably his wife—wore a scarlet dress, belted loosely around her waist with gold leaves, and her fingers were covered with rings.  A thin chain wore a cross about half the size of her husband's, and golden brown hair was covered with a white veil, fastened with a chain from which dangled obviously glass gems.  The only thing about her that Lily admired were her almost golden eyes, her hair, though not its ridiculously curly arrangement, and her hands, long and fine from laziness.  The lord held no attraction for her whatsoever; he was inclined to be fat, had no sense of what color clashed  with which, and didn't look as if he had ever needed to handle his sword in his life.

Nevertheless, as they inclined their heads towards the couple, Lily did the same, and James followed suit.  Immediately afterwards, the female of the pair burst into torrents of speech.

"I remember you—you were at Lady Tennent's gala last month.  Oh!  I've got so much to tell you—you can't believe how much happened since then.  Lord Bassen performed _suicide!" she said in a whisper, leaning towards Lily.  "His wife's almost crazy with grief—just think, the church refused to bury him!  They say it's silly that they should bury someone that took his own life.  And we had a magician in here last week—just think, he said we were all doomed and that our palace would blow away into the winds as soon as we were dead!  We can't get a decent servant now, think of that!—"_

The man interrupted her.  "I _think_," he said, glancing up and down Lily's figure, "that you two should join us at our manor for dinner.  I am sure I would not but enjoy your company."

Lily cast a quick look over to James, who shrugged—he knew the lady had obviously mistaken them for someone else.  She made up her mind instantly.

"We would be delighted to accept your hospitality," Lily said imperiously, and the lady flashed a bright smile at them and turned her horse and parade around a street corner; Lily and James rode with them at the front, Lily grinding her teeth at the sound of bagpipes floating from a member of the parade that obviously hadn't studied the art of making non-eardrum-piercing music come out of the bagpipes.

The manor (or "palace", termed by the lady) was large enough, once they had been leisurely riding for one hour to get to it; it had large, wooden doors with a newfangled latch, and there were mismatched tapestries on the walls.  Long curtains hung at the tall windows, and carved wooden chairs were set around a large table in the dining hall.  Servants dressed in combinations of orange, pink, and purple flutterings dashed forward and relieved James of his cloak and the lord and lady of their veil and mantle, and Lily smiled to herself to realize that this was what was termed as 'comfortable living'.

The dinner was well enough, interrupted frequently by chatterings from the lady and several of her other guests.  Her name turned out to be Elinore of Sunnamen, and her husband's name was Sir Richard.  

A roasted pig sat in the middle of the table, with tureens of gravy set all around it.  Pieces of white bread were placed at intervals around the table for dipping in the gravy, and fruit was jumbled together in glass bowls.  There were no napkins, but in compensation there was a long tablecloth.  It was apparently the custom to drink large amounts of wine and fall over one another telling long and drawn-out stories that only made sense if you were as drunk as the relater, and Lily found herself wishing she hadn't come. James was constantly on the watch, tense, for a man beside her had already tried to grope at her shoulder, mumbling something about a lovely princess.  He had had to threaten that man with his fist, and her neighbor had immediately fallen off of his chair.

Lily leaned over to James.  "This is enough to put me off of wine forever."

"It is," he agreed.  "Now aren't you glad I'm not a heavy drinker?"

"Definitely," Lily frowned.  "If you entertained people like this, you'd be without a wife."

She pushed her chair back, looking around the room for an opportune temporary exit, for she felt she'd be sick to her stomach if she had to keep on breathing the reeking fumes at the table.  She found a narrow hallway with a window, and, gasping in air, leaned relievedly on the sill.  

Lily heard steps behind her, and she sighed.

"Are you ready to go, too?"

"Quite definitely," a voice behind her said.  

She whirled.  If that was James' voice, he had undergone surprisingly quick surgery of his vocal cords.  Besides, James didn't spit when he had finished a sentence.

No, Lily agreed with herself, nothing could be more unlike James.  James, at least, knew how to dress.  James had _taste.  This mass of rolled, clashing cloth and glass trinkets, however, did __not have taste.  He'd obviously also had too much to drink, and while that might be madly attractive to bald older ladies with lap dogs, it didn't appeal to her._

"On second thought," Lily commented, "I'll stay here."

"May I accompany thee in thy musings?" he lurched faintly.

"You may _not_," she snapped.  She had no time for this.  In the mood she was in, she wanted to go on a honeymoon with her husband to enjoy herself, not to be constantly warding off drunks.  "I'd rather you didn't."

"But my lady isn't safe by her lone self.  She'd better have some protection."

_Protection, Lily thought.  _From_ _whom, I wonder_. _

She turned towards the hallway that led to the dining hall, meaning to walk towards it, but the man—if it could be called a man—blocked her way.

"Where to, my lady?"

Sirius could have advised that man against that.  James could have advised that man against that.  Lora, Eva, Vanessa, Amanda, and Serena all could have advised that man against that.  Lily's fist started to itch.

"If my lady wishes to stay the night, this manor has a wing dedicated to guests," he leered.  "I could show them to the lady."  He snatched at her arm.

Inside the dining hall, James was getting rather worried.  Well—not worried, but puzzled.  She'd said she'd return right away, and now she'd been gone a good ten minutes.  Of course, he couldn't blame her for staying away from the table—for their taste, the people had absolutely no manners, and they were quite content to listen to the men talk and have the women sit on, admiring.  When Lily had spoken up, saying that the idea of nobles and a tyrannical king was idiotic, they had eyed her with suspicion, and James wasn't sure, but he thought that his neighbor had called them 'foreign sorcerers'.  

Several minutes ago, an elderly man that had decidedly had too much to drink had stood up from the table, but James hadn't noticed where he'd gone.  Theories abounding, he pushed his own chair back and followed the hallway Lily had entered.  He knew, above anyone else, that Lily was capable of taking care of herself, but he had an idea she wouldn't forgive him easily if he didn't come to her rescue, even if he wasn't needed.

He was entirely correct in his suppositions as to where the man had gone, and also correct as applied to what he was doing.  Practically bald, with spilled articles of food and drink all over his gaudy clothing, he was attempting to seduce a rather tempestuous redhead, trying to pin her arm behind her back or something of that sort.  He should have known better, James thought, shaking his head, and he stepped forward.

"Lily, need help there?"

Lily looked up, flashing him a smile of relief.  "I was wondering if you would follow me."  She grinned.  "I think I've got it pretty well under control.  Just a moment—"

She pulled her arm forward, yanked it backward, and elbowed him in the stomach, causing the man to grunt and loosen his hold.  He hadn't expected that, and a bit of rage caused him to tighten his hold on Lily's wrists.  

She wouldn't have let on for the world, but James could tell it hurt her; small lines of pain were forming around her eyes, and her knuckles were somewhat white.  He snapped.  As long as the guy wasn't hurting his wife, it was somewhat tolerable, but this was less than tolerable.  At the last moment, he remembered the rule about no magic in the Muggle world, and pulled his own fist back, catching the man at the base of the skull.

It was a very satisfying thud, James reflected, and it was even more satisfying that the man had fallen, dazed, onto the floor.  He hadn't had to threaten him at all to let go of Lily; as soon as James caught her before she fell, her wrists were released.

"You all right?" James asked, though, truth to tell, he'd be more concerned about the man than Lily if he'd had any reason to be concerned for him.

"Of course I am.  I'd have done something about it by myself, you know. You really didn't have to come and help.  It makes me feel so much like a damsel in distress."

"Well, you _were_."

"I was _not_," she snapped, but on seeing his face, she sighed.

"I'm sorry.  I shouldn't have.  I don't know if I could have handled him.  He was stronger than he looked."

He picked her up, deftly moving her train out from underneath the fallen bulk that falsely liked to call itself human, in his opinion, and walked down the hallway, out a back way, and around to the stables.  James lifted his wife onto her horse.  "You sure you can ride?"

"Positive," she smiled.  "I won't be thrown."

He grinned back at her as he mounted his own.  "Let's get back to the boarding-house, shall we?"

"You know where to go, I suspect?" she inquired."

"More or less.  We'd better go, if we want to get there before dark."

They left the manor unnoticed by all except several youths picking fruit from trees in an orchard, and they rode quickly through the fields and the forests, splashing rapidly through small streams.  Lily laughed when she looked up, close to the boarding-house, and saw storm-clouds gathering.  By the time they had put their horses away and stepped inside, rain was pelting madly.

Both of them laughing now, they started to mount the stairs, but they were met by their landlady, who coughed loudly and retreated into another room.  James frowned; he didn't like this, but he wasn't about to alarm Lily.  She, however, had noticed, and she was just as on her guard as James was, so when they pushed the door to their room open and found three knights there, with drawn swords, they were hardly surprised.

One of the knights, obviously the leader, stepped forward, holding a piece of paper.

"I am hereby commanded to confiscate the rights and liberty of the accused persons abiding in this place of residence and direct them immediately to a place of security," he said pompously, patting his sword.

James raised his eyebrows.  "You're taking us to jail, in other words?"

"Er—"  The man was discomposed, at least for the moment.  "Sir, we have received good and fast evidence that thee and thy lady have performed the crime of witchcraft against the people of England, and we are to take thee for thy trial."

"Trial," James snorted.  "More likely death sentence."  He turned to Lily.  "Go with them peacefully or not?"

She wrinkled her nose.  "I suppose we'd have more of a thrill if we fought them, but then they've got quite long swords and we've only got my dagger."

"Go with them?"

Lily nodded, laughing.  "Lead on.  We're ready."

This was a rather startling experience for the knights—they were used to the accused putting up huge whining tantrums and screaming their innocence—and these two were finding it amusing!

"I am entitled to warn you that your punishment, if you are convicted, is death by the stake."

"Hold it," Lily interrupted.  "What 'good and fast' evidence do you claim to have?"

James almost laughed.  He hadn't thought of that himself.

Folding his hands over his stomach haughtily , the leader signaled to one of the other guards.  "Bring forth the items."

As arrogantly as he, the two others stepped forward, carrying the cauldron Lily had made last night's meal in and the other carried her purse.  James frowned.

"You mean to say that her purse proves us both to be magical?"  
"It does, sire, and that evidence is final.  Reach inside, man," he commanded.

James supposed that that meant him, and he pulled out Lily's bracelet, the one—He groaned.  It was the one she had bewitched so that Muggles couldn't pick it up.

Pandemonium broke out.  The landlady, who had taken up her position at the door, squealed, flung her apron up over her head, and fled down the stairs.  The leader shrunk backwards, crashing into a table and sending it flying, while his two sidekicks lowered their spears, pointing them at the necks of the couple, growling.

Lily frowned.  "I'm guessing we'll have to go with them.  Where'd you put our wands?"

The leader let out a fresh gasp, and James was starting to enjoy this.  "They're in the drawer of the table, right underneath the fat guy," he gestured.

The fallen knight leapt up, staring wide-eyed at the table, and he gave a curt order.  "March them to the judge!"

James was worrying only a tiny bit.  Both of them were in possession of their wands; they were in pockets in their bliauts, but he didn't know what they'd do if they got taken away from them.  He didn't mention that to Lily, though, because she was obviously enjoying herself.

They were roughly yanked into a courtroom, where an elderly man, all in black, stood behind a desk, presiding.  The guards and the woman gave their evidence, and then James and Lily were called upon to give their arguments.  James almost laughed when he saw Lily's expression.

"Thou art to plea innocent of the charge and give thy evidence, or thou shalt plead guilty and suffer thy punishments.  Make your choice wisely and truthfully."

Lily shook her hair back.  "How do you know I'm a witch?"

"By the evidence that has been put before us," the judge frowned.  "Get on with they plea."

"So just because I've got an interesting cooking pot and a bracelet that your guards were too clumsy to pick up, I'm immediately a witch?"

"Keep a civil tongue in thy head!" the judge thundered.  "Plea thy case!"

"I am.  I'm asking you what the evidence is against me, and I'm picking holes in the evidence.  You're condemning me to death because I don't have the same cooking-pot that my landlady does?"

"It is a _cauldron_!" the leader of the guards burst out.  "And they spoke of wands!"

"My companion told you the wands were in the drawer underneath you.  Was there a drawer?"

"There was not," he admitted.  "You bewitched it!"

"So, there wasn't a drawer, which means there also were no wands.  One fact established.  We don't own wands."

The leader started to splutter, but she drove on cleanly.

"If I am not mistaken, then the fact that one is capable of witchcraft is established by seeing a person perform magic.  I haven't done so, and you can't prove that I have.  Two:  I have not allegedly harmed anyone by…"

She went on in that strain for at least twenty minutes, and it was only when she made a purposeful insult towards the guards, pointing out stupidity and clumsiness, that the judge lost his already strained temper.

"Enough!  The stake for them both!  Not only witchcraft, but insults have they flung at our society!  To the stake with them!"

Lily was laughing merrily, each note she sounded seemed to freeze the marrow of each guard's bones.  James was used to it, and he found himself grinning along with her as they were led outside, to three already prepared stakes.

They were bound to one of them, back to back, with the stake in between them.  Fagots were piled quickly around their feet as a curious peasantry crowd poured in.  By the time the fagots were being lighted, however, James had managed to loosen Lily's hands enough so that she could reach her wand unobtrusively, and he felt a cold, tingling sensation as she murmered a Freezing Charm, directing it at him.

He didn't hear her repeat the same one, and he whirled towards her.  She was regarding the flames with interest, and he almost yelped.

"Lily, are you _nuts_?!" he hissed.  "You're not immune to fire!"

She smiled at him and at streaming lines of smoke.  His forehead started to produce beads of sweat.  

"Lily!  For God's sake, don't kill yourself!"

Shaking her curls in front of her face, she pouted.  "I wanted to see how much it would hurt!"

"It hurts," he said with finality.  "Come _on_!  If you don't, at least take mine off of me."

She sighed, and a few seconds later, seconds before her dress was threatening to catch on fire, he heard her murmur the charm again.  Relieved, he slumped against the stake.

But then, immediately, he was wrenched out of his relieved state by an agonized screaming.  Screams he knew the origin of, and he could feel Lily straining at the ropes that bound her to the stake.

His subconscious forgot to breathe for a few seconds, and for a moment, he struggled for air.

"_Lily_!" he gasped as soon as he could.  Her shrieks were cutting into his veins—he'd no idea what had gone wrong.  And he couldn't help—for the life of him, he couldn't reach her wand.  Frantically, he strained at the binding ropes, hoping they'd be old and frayed.  They weren't.


End file.
